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Brother’s Kidney Donation Frees Scottish Patient From Daily Dialysis

NHS Lothian is highlighting the brothers’ case to mark 65 years after the UK’s first successful kidney transplant.

Overview

  • Harry Wilson, 65, from Broxburn, donated a kidney to his brother Gordon, 67, from Torphichen, after Gordon was told he needed a transplant.
  • Gordon had been on home dialysis from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily and described the treatment as exhausting and disruptive.
  • Harry called the decision a “no-brainer,” saying he would have donated even with a 50/50 survival chance, and Gordon says he is now back to his old self.
  • NHS Lothian consultant transplant surgeon John Terrace praised the outcome as proof of the transformative impact of living donation.
  • The account coincides with Edinburgh’s commemoration of the 1960 twin-to-twin transplant by Sir Michael Woodruff, after which more than 2,000 living donor kidney transplants have been performed in Scotland.