Mother’s kidney donation gives daughter the gift of life

A MOTHER donated one of her kidneys to save her daughter yesterday — less than a year after her son died days before she was due to undergo the same operation to save him.

Mary Alvey hoped the transplant operation would give her daughter, Elizabeth, a new lease of life and allow her to start the family she desperately wanted.

But preparations for the procedure brought painful memories for the 53-year-old care assistant from Nottinghamshire. Her son, Peter, died last year as the pair awaited the same life-changing operation.

Mrs Alvey’s two children both grew up suffering chronic kidney failure but for years no suitable donors could be found for the pair.

Last year she and her 57-year-old husband, Des, defied odds of 14 million to when they learned that they could donate an organ each to their two children.

However, days before the operation, 29-year-old Peter, who was due to have a kidney transplant from his mother, tragically died.

As Mrs Alvey and her daughter were admitted to Nottingham’s City Hospital yesterday, she said they were both anxious and nervous about the operation.

“It was a very traumatic time for the family, losing Peter the way we did,” Mrs Alvey said.

“He was a very kind person and he would do anything for anybody. He did actually say to me if I didn’t decide to give the kidney to him I should let Elizabeth have it instead.

“It will transform her life. It will give her a new lease of life.

“She is hoping in the future to start a family. She and her husband desperately want children and hopefully after this she will be able to lead a normal life.”

As the pair were admitted to hospital, she said they were both anxious about the operation.

She described the heartbreak of last year when weeks after celebrating the news that both she and her husband were suitable donors for their two children, further tests found Mr Alvey was unable to donate a kidney.

Mrs Alvey decided to go ahead with the operation to help her son but just two days before it was due to take place, he collapsed in the bathroom at his Mansfield home during an epileptic fit and drowned.

The distraught family have spent the past year coming to terms with his death, but Mrs Alvey said that he had asked that she donate her kidney to Elizabeth instead if the circumstances arose.

A hospital spokeswoman said: “She was due to give the organ to her son and her husband was due to donate to the daughter.

“Her son died last year just before the operation was due to take place and now she is having the operation to help her daughter.

“The operation is going ahead at City Hospital and they were being admitted in the afternoon.”