In 1974, 13-year-old Mike Shepherdson went into surgery at St James’s Hospital for a kidney transplant, where a kidney was flown in from France. Although commonplace now, this was a rare operation and certainly never happened on children. The brave organ donor, their family and the team that courageously gave Mike his new kidney that day have given him an extra 50 years of life, something that he remains ever grateful for.
The renal transplant team at St James’s organised a celebration event to recognise the amazing difference organ transplants make to people’s lives, and celebrate the anniversary of one of the oldest kidney transplants in the country.
Mike Shepherdson shared his personal experiences of living with a kidney transplant, and was presented with a celebratory gift by Professor Sandy Davison who was his consultant at the time of transplant.
“I spent a lot of time in hospital as a child and was diagnosed with kidney disease after lots of tests and not really knowing much about why I was so poorly.
My mum Dorothy and I trained to do my dialysis at home, with just our scribbled notes for guidance and even had to have a telephone line installed just for this reason.
Any form of dialysis on a child back in the 1970’s was incredibly rare, and the fact I was able to have it was a bit of a miracle.
But I always felt safe. I knew that I had a brilliant team at St James’s who would look after me. There was always someone on the end of the phone if I needed them.
I got the call for a kidney transplant on the 4th July 1974. I remember it as being independence day.
It took a while to get the transplant to work, and I thank the team for their patience back then.
I cannot imagine the personal and professional risk the surgeons took to transplant me that day. I can’t get my head around it. I can only thank them from the bottom of my heart.
I never told people that I’d had a transplant, because I wanted to be normal.
I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had a great career, I’ve lived around the world, travelled, done some silly things. You get some things right and sometimes you wish you’d done things differently.
I’ve enjoyed it all.
I have been married to Frances for 37 years and we have our children Tom and Emily, and now granddaughter Ruby.
It took a while for it to occur to me that someone had to die for me to live. I always wanted to do the best by them and I’ve always done what I can to look after my kidney.
My advice for others going through this is to own your condition and understand what’s going on in your body.
There are so many people I could thank over the years. The ongoing care and support I’ve had is special.”
Dr Richard Baker, Consultant Nephrologist, said: “Mike’s experiences show us how far we have come in kidney transplantation. From it being a very rare and novel occasion, we can now do upwards of 200 kidney transplants each year.
This is a combination of very many doctors, surgeons, nurses and other professionals coming together and wanting to do better for our patients year on year.
Things have changed over the years and, as doctors, we hold the batons for a little while before handing them onto a new team who can take the service even further.
It’s a delight to be a part of this brilliant team and to see Mike doing so well.”
Dr Magnus Harrison, Chief Medical Officer at LTHT, said: “Mike’s story is one of immense courage.
The courage of the clinical team to transplant a kidney into a child. The courage of Mike and his family to put his life in their hands that day.
Our specialist teams are brilliant and, in Leeds, our patients typically wait less time for a kidney transplant than the national average. However, we cannot do what we do without our organ donors.
Without donation, most of this can never happen. We encourage everyone to speak about organ donation, and record their wishes on the organ donor register.”
- In 2023/2024, 162 patients received a kidney transplant at Leeds Teaching Hospitals (155 adults and 7 children)
- There are currently 9000 people in the UK waiting for a kidney transplant
- There are currently 355 people in Leeds waiting for a kidney transplant
- Over 1200 patients are still seen in our post-transplant follow up clinic providing aftercare and support