Reunion after 38 years for transplant pioneers

Ruth Moorhead was a teenager when she was the first child to undergo a kidney transplant at St James’s Hospital in January 1976.

In a double first, she received the organ from her father Mervyn – the hospital’s first operation using a live kidney donor.

Ruth – now Ruth Wright – and her parents travelled from their homes in Plymouth to Leeds to meet surgeon Dr Stanley Rosen.

He flew in from California for a special event for former kidney transplant patients and said it was an “immense pleasure” to meet Ruth and fellow transplantees.

Mrs Wright lived in York at the time of her operation, and she and her father, now 87, and mother Beryl brought scrapbooks of press cuttings, letters and mementoes to Leeds.

The family were also reunited with Fred Gungaram, a former nurse who cared for her during her treatment.

Meanwhile another former transplant patient, Charlotte Tate, has marked the anniversary of her lifesaving surgery.

Mrs Tate, previously Charlotte Rogerson, had a heart transplant 20 years ago while she lived in Leeds, but now lives in Northumberland.

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