True friendship...and a kidney

26 January 2008The bonds of friendship will be ever intertwined for two Chrsitchurch women with the greatest gift of a new life. Christchurch nurse Clair Johnston is used to saving lives, but on Monday she will change the life of a colleague by giving her a kidney.

Johnston, who works in Christchurch Hospital's cardiac ward, will donate her kidney to fellow nurse Lynsey Farra.

Several years ago, Farra was told she needed a kidney transplant or would face life hooked up to a dialysis machine.

She said her emotions before the tranplant were too high to talk to media, but she wanted her story told to encourage others to donate organs.

Johnston, 43, said that after watching her friends health deteriorate through the nine years they had worked together, she decided a year ago she wanted to give Farra the chance of a normal life.

"It challanged me to know that Lynsey could end up in a box (a coffin) or hooked up to a dialysis machine for life if she didn't find a donor. It got me wondering wether I could be unselfish enough to do that for another human being," she said.

"You think through the all the possibilites - like how will I feel if it doesn't work. But the more I thought about it the more I decided, 'why not?' "

Johnston asked Farra to have a coffee with her and "stunned" her friend by offering to undergo tests to see whether she could be a kidney donor.

After a year of tests, including assessments by a psychologist as well as blood tests and scans to check the position and health of the donor's kidney, the donor surgery is set for Monday.

Johnston said with the surgery looming, she and Farra had become emotional.

"I cry at the drop of a hat. Everyone is being so kind, asking me how I am and wishing me luck, but that just makes me want to bawl," she said.

Johnston said over the past year, Farra had been remarkably calm, largely because she did not want to put pressure on her friend or be disappointed if they were not compatible.

The pair would undergo surgery in different theatres with a surgeon each, Johnston said.

The operations would take about three hours, she said.

The operation was more gruelling for the donor as the abdomen was opened to locate the kidney and then removed through a cut in the patients stomach, Johnston said.

Farra would take about two months to recover and would need to take anti-rejection drugs for life, Johnston said.

Farra, whose kidneys were damaged 20 years ago when she was given too many antibiotics after falling ill overseas, said she wanted her friend to be the focus of the news story.

"I'm really such a small part of it. What she has done is really special and she deserves so much credit for it," Farra said.

She could not describe how much she appreciated her friend for being a donor.

Christchurch nephrology department clinical director Kelvin Lynn said kidney transplants were successful in about 95 per cent of cases.

He said many people did not realise they could donate outside their family.

Testing usually took about six months, he said.

An Organ Donation New Zealand spokeswoman said 58 people had donated a kidney last year. Over the same period, 65 people had recieved a kidney form a cadaver.

The Press 26/01/2008