Gift of a transplant was selfless act of friendship

The 23-year-old had been waiting for five years for a suitable donor kidney to become available and having to under go dialysis three times a week in hospital.

Her parents' and brother's tissue types did not match Holly's, and she was starting to feel that she would spend the rest of her life on dialysis when the text arrived from Oli Foggins.

"He had been away travelling and when he got back we went out for dinner but I had to leave early to go to hospital for dialysis. I hadn't really told many people about my illness as that was my way of coping; I didn't want to be treated differently. But I told Oli a

bit about it."

Holly had been diagnosed with end-stage renal failure while visiting relatives in America in 2003.

"I'd been feeling unwell for a while, but I was 19 and just thought it was too much partying." But she was taken very ill on the aircraft over to the US and was admitted to hospital on landing there. After days of tests, doctors told her that her kidneys were failing and that she would need dialysis and a transplant.

"It was a shock, but in some ways at least I knew that they could do something and that I wasn't going to feel terrible forever," says the 25-year-old freelance photographer and film-maker.

"They said that I must have been born with small kidneys and they had started to shrink so that they had almost disappeared altogether." Holly had to decide whether to be flown home or spend three months in California learning how to do dialysis.

"I decided I wanted to go home. They gave me a weird cocktail of drugs when I left California and the next thing I remember I was in London."

What followed was five-and-a-half years of dialysis and feeling exhausted as Holly joined the 8,000 people waiting for organs on the UK Transplant list.

"It was a case of waiting, and waiting and waiting," says Holly. At one stage her hopes were raised when a donor kidney became available, only to be told at the 11th hour that it wasn't

a match.

"It felt like I was never going to be able to live a normal life again."

Then she met her old friend, Oli, from Leeds and she told him her story. The pair had grown up together on the same street and were only separated when Holly's family moved to London when she was 14. They still kept in touch and tried to see each other as much as possible.

"When Holly told me my immediate reaction was that I wanted to help. But I went away and did a lot of research about any possible consequences of giving her one of my kidneys and also to talk to my family about what they thought."

The more Oli thought about what Holly was going through, the more he wanted to do something to help her and so he sent her a text.

"I couldn't believe what he was offering to do. It wasn't something I would ever have asked anyone to do but he said he was serious. I told him that it was very kind, but that I would wait for a donor kidney to become available." But Oli wasn't going to take "no" for an answer. A week later he telephoned her and said he was going to London for tests which showed he was a tissue match to Holly.

"Oli had been very poorly as a child with a brain tumour. It meant he understood, but I didn't want to put him through another operation."

But Oli had done his research and he knew that he could survive perfectly well with one kidney.

"There were times when I thought 'what am I doing' but then I would think of Holly and it made it all worthwhile. Someone said to me 'would I throw Holly a lifebelt if she was drowning?' and of course I would. The only difference with this was that I needed an operation. But I knew what it was like to be in hospital and I knew that I could change all that for Holly."

They both had to undergo rigorous counselling and questioning to ensure that they actually did know each other and that Holly wasn't paying Oli for his kidney.

But six weeks later the pair were in hospital undergoing the procedure, which was a complete success.

"I woke up and immediately saw Oli. I felt so much better. The kidney was working, my head felt clear for the first time in ages.

He says: "I did feel pretty rough when I came round but when I woke up I saw Holly in the next bed and she was chatting away and looked so much better than before the operation and it made me realise that it was worthwhile. My main worry is if we had been through it all and then it didn't work or her body rejected it. But it was such a good match that it is amazing."

Her bond with Oli has now inspired Holly to capture the special relationship of organ donors and their recipients on camera. "After years of dialysis, Oli's selfless act totally changed my life and the friendship we have now is stronger than ever. He's like family to me and my parents. We will always have a special connection."

Oli and Holly have been nominated for a Cosmopolitan Ultimate Friends Award on November 2. "We are both thrilled to have been nominated, But if we win it isn't really for me, it is for Oli," said Holly.

He says: "I didn't do what I did to get any accolades. Just to know that Holly has a better quality of life is enough for me."

To find out more about becoming an organ donor visit www.uktransplant org.uk

Jessica is in the running

Sheffield sporting heroine Jessica Ennis has been nominated in the "Ultimate Sports Star" category at Cosmopolitan's Ultimate Women Awards 2010 taking place in London on November 2.

When Jessica powered to heptathlon Gold in July's European Championships in July, she secured her place in the nation's hearts. Already a golden girl after winning Britain's first heptathlon gold medal at the World Championships last year, her determination on the sports field is perfectly matched with

her sweetness off it.

Born in Sheffield to a painter/decorator father and social worker mother, neither of Jessica's parents was particularly sporty. They introduced her to athletics by taking her to a Start:Track event at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium during the 1996 school summer holidays. She took to the sport immediately and joined the City of Sheffield Athletic Club the following year, aged 11. The 2006 Commonwealth Games marked her coming of age, when she took the bronze medal in the heptathlon. For the European Championships in Barcelona, she overcame a virus, and the Olympic gold medallist Nataliya Dobrynska, to sneak a win in a lifetime-best performance.

She is now a hot favourite to triumph at the 2012 London Olympics, when she will be at the peak of her powers and, quite possibly, the Face of the Games. With lucrative sponsorship deals, she's starting to enjoy her success.