Kidney transplants: NI's 3,000th patient praises 'hero' mum

A 31-year-old woman from Belfast has become the 3,000th person to undergo a successful life-saving kidney transplant in Northern Ireland.

Shannon Stewart received a live kidney donation from her mum Joanne Osborne on 3 January at Belfast City Hospital.

The significant achievement is a being hailed as a landmark moment for organ donation.

"The first 1,000 transplants took 30 years," said consultant Dr Aisling Courtney.

"The second 1,000 took 17 years, and the last 1,000 were done in just under nine years.

"It's an outstanding testament to the team at the hospital, to the altruism of the donors, and all the hard work here since renal services were set up in the mid 1960s."

Shannon discovered she required a kidney transplant in June 2023 and just six months later had undergone her transformational surgery, thanks to her mum.

"She's my hero," an emotional Shannon said.

"What she has done for me and my family is unreal and you can never repay her for that. I just love her dearly, she is everything and more to me."

She said that before her transplant she was exhausted all the time, and had brain fog.

"Straight away, still in hospital after the transplant, I felt amazing, albeit tired and sore from the surgery," she said.

"It's almost as if my head cleared automatically."

Joanne and Shannon's sister Shalane were both tested to see if they could be donors, and it was Joanne who was the most suitable match.

She said she had absolutely no hesitation donating to her daughter to give her a better family life with two-year-old son Grayson.

"He needed her," said Joanne.

"I've had my life, I've raised my kids, I've got grandkids and they are the most important thing, so Grayson needed her and I had to do it for Shannon.

"I know the operation is done and dusted but I still can't believe it - it's unreal. It really is just amazing what I could do for her.

"I'm just happy as long as she's well; that's my main concern."

She said her daughter was "glowing" after her operation.

"You could literally see the difference in her. I know she will have so much more energy and be able to do things," she said.

Shannon and Joanne, who both work at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, County Down, were thrilled when they were informed their transplant was the 3,000th performed since renal services began in Belfast in 1968.

"Working in the health service you see the day-to-day running of things but you are never on the receiving end of it," said Shannon.

"You see how hard everyone works around the place but to actually be a patient, see it from a different angle and actually reach that milestone as a patient is unbelievable."

The increase in the number of kidney transplants being performed in Northern Ireland over the past decade is due to the expansion of the highly successful live donor programme.

"There are people who are coming forward to donate to family, as in this case, or a friend or sometimes even just to a stranger," said Dr Courtney.

"It's a phenomenal achievement for Northern Ireland which was recognised as being the leading country for living organ donation in the world."

It is not the first time that the team at Belfast City Hospital has made headlines.

In 2020, a record number of 137 life-saving kidney transplants were performed in Northern Ireland.

More than 100 of those operations were carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic and included a UK record-equalling five kidney transplants in one 24-hour period.

Five years earlier the same record was achieved with five transplants in single day.

At the end of 2023 a three-year-old boy, Olly Cartmill, became the smallest, and one of the youngest, recipients of a kidney transplant.

Since Shannon's kidney transplant 15 more life-saving transplants have taken place in Belfast.