Forty years
with donated
kidney after
operation on
Friday 13th

One of the longest surviving transplant patients in the country, 70-year-old Kathleen Hart underwent a kidney transplant on Friday December 13, 1973.

The donation has allowed 
her to live for four decades and see the birth of her two grandchildren.

To celebrate her achievement, Kathleen, of Sutton-in-Craven, held a special party at the home of her son Robert, 47, on the anniversary of the surgery at St James’s Hospital in Leeds.

Kathleen said: “Friday the 13th is most people’s unlucky day but it’s my luckiest day and I look forward to them every time one’s coming up.

“Every day I am grateful to the doctors who carried out the surgery and to the person who donated their kidney to me.

“While I was on dialysis I had to be very careful what I ate and drank. I could never go away on holidays – even in England – and was forced to live a very restricted life.

“It was tough, for all the family, at times. But we supported 
each other worked through it 
and it was never a problem as such.

“But the opportunity to live normally has been the best gift of my life and I am so pleased that my family did not have to keep looking after me – for their sake and mine.”

To join is the donor register, or for more information, visit organ donation. NHS.uk/how_to_become_a_donor