Woman's kidney is 100-years-old following donation from mother in 1973

Sue Westhead has a 100-year-old kidney. She received the swap from her 57-year-old mother Ann Metcalfe in 1973 and is thought to have the world’s oldest successfully transplanted kidney. Forty-three years on, she is still going strong.

Doctors usually estimate a transplant from a living donor to last 20 years at most.

Sue, who is from Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, shared her story with BBC Newcastle in a broadcast on Wednesday.

She was diagnosed with a kidney disease and had only one tenth of the normal renal function.

Now 68, she remembered being fearful about how the operation would go.

She told BBC Newcastle: “It was a pretty scary time, even when I was still on the ward people were dying.

“I remember thinking, if I get five years I’ll be happy.

“That was 43 years ago and my kidney is heading for 101 years old in November.”

She said: “My Mum literally gave me life, because I wouldn’t have lived much longer.

“I could hardly walk, I was a different colour - I was yellow and all of a sudden I had a rosy glow.”

Sue has looked after herself and taken 20 pills a day to make sure the kidney was not rejected.

Her mother would have been 101 this year, paying tribute to her “good genes”.

The President of the British Transplantation Society and Professor of Transplant Surgery at Newcastle University, Professor Derek Manas, said: “It’s an amazing story of encouragement and hope for people on dialysis and for encouraging people to donate as living donors to join the Organ Donor Register.

“I think Sue must be one of the longest survivors.”