A woman with a 100-year-old kidney donated from her mother in the 1970s is thought to have the world’s oldest successfully transplanted kidney.
Sue Westhead received the swap in 1973 when her mother Ann Metcalfe was 57. Now, 43 years on, it is still going strong.
Doctors usually estimate a transplant from a living donor will last 20 years at most.
Sue, who is from Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, shared her story with BBC Newcastle in a broadcast on today.
She was diagnosed with kidney disease and had only one tenth of normal renal function.
She told BBC Newcastle: “It was a pretty scary time, even when I was still on the ward people were
dying. “I remember thinking if I get five years I’ll be happy.
“That was 43 years ago and my kidney is heading for 101 years-old in November.”
She added: “My Mum literally gave me life, because I wouldn’t have lived much longer.
“I could hardly walk, I was a different colour – I was yellow and all of a sudden I had a rosy glow.”
She said she has looked after herself and taken 20 pills a day to make sure the kidney was not rejected.
Her mother would have been 101 this year, she added, and paid tribute to her “good genes”.
