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The UK charity, Transplant Links – set up by a group of leading kidney doctors and surgeons – is working with colleagues in Ghana to develop an active living kidney transplant programme, which allows healthy family members to donate a kidney to another seriously ill family member, so saving their life. Dialysis is rarely available and where it is the cost is too high for most families, so currently death from kidney disease is all too common and yet it should be avoidable.
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Transplant Links has established that the local medical skills levels in Ghana are ready to take forward to run an active living kidney transplant programme. The charity first visited Ghana in 2008, and helped to perform the first ever living kidney transplants in the country. The lives of three people were saved, but most importantly, training of the local transplant team began. The Ghanaian team is now ‘twinned’ with University Hospital Birmingham in the UK and further visits are desperately needed to continue the work begun. Kidney disease is growing in prevalence by 5% per year and globally has reached epidemic proportions in many countries, affecting up to 20% of the population. Prognosis is worse than for those with HIV/Aids and yet patients can be treated and lives can be saved through living kidney transplants. Transplant Links now needs to raise the funds to make two more visits to Ghana to continue the training and hopes to bring one of the surgeons back to the UK to work alongside the UK team, as well as providing more educational written materials for support medical staff and for patients. Costs: The medical team all give their time voluntarily, but funds are vital for flights for the UK doctors, nurses and theatre teams (9 people) for two visits, as well as accommodation, medical equipment and production of relevant training materials. The sum we need to raise is £50,000.