A UK twin is encouraging others to sign up to the organ donor register after swapping his kidney for a LEGO Star Wars set.
Forty-eight-year-old James Brown donated a kidney to his twin brother Tim in 2013. One of Tim’s kidneys was removed when he was just 18 months old, and the other had apparently started showing symptoms of disease. “By mid-2012 it was clear that his luck, and his kidney, was running out,” James told the BBC. “Fortunately, being identical mirror twins meant we were a perfect genetic match.”
The procedure took place in 2013 only a day after the pair celebrated their birthday – and visited their local LEGO Store in the UK. “What did Tim give me in return for a kidney? Some Star Wars LEGO,” James said. “We still laugh about it, and that LEGO sits on my shelf as a reminder of our shared journey, and his questionable – perhaps phenomenal – negotiation skills.”
"The NHS transplant team at the Royal Liverpool were incredible," Tim told the University of Chester. "Not only their expertise but also the care and support pre- and post-transplant for both JB and I. Words will never be able to express my gratitude to them, or to JB, but I did thank him with some LEGO, which seemed a fair swap to me!”
We’re currently nearing the end of the NHS’s Organ Donation Week, which runs from September 22 to 28, and is intended to ‘raise awareness about the importance of organ donation’. According to the NHS, more than 8,000 people are currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant to either ‘save or improve their lives’ – and you’re more likely to one day need an organ from someone else than to have to donate yours.
There’s a joke in here somewhere about needing to sell a kidney to afford the new
Featured image: Magnus D, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.
Comments
Be the first to comment!