Newspaper plea leads to woman receiving kidney from ex-con

Sally-Anne Grainger, 34, needed a kidney.

The Worcestershire, England, woman described herself as “barely existing” when she posted a plea for a donor in her local paper, the Worcester News, in January.

Grainger, the mother of 14- and 10-year-old daughters, suffers from cystic fibrosis. She suffered renal failure following a double lung transplant in 2009 — the transplant medications put too great a strain on her liver — and was having dialysis treatment three times a week, and sleeping for up to 14 hours a day, when she turned to the newspaper for help.

“If I don’t get a kidney I will die sooner rather than later,” she told the Worcester News.

"I want to see my girls grow up and be a mum to them as long as I can for them.”

Ten people responded to Grainger’s donor request — and only one was found to be a match.

Wesley Joyce, 33, a father of four, was confirmed as a tissue and blood type match. He donated his kidney to Grainger on Friday.

"I have no words to describe my gratitude," Grainger told the BBC.

"I’m just so overwhelmed…I didn’t expect, it [the donation] to happen, you know, it only happens in movies."

Joyce, a former soldier, previously served time in prison for assault. When he was released in 2006, he vowed to turn his life around — and he did.

"I thought, ‘I need to change my life a little bit,’ as I’ve not been a good boy all my life. I’ve done good things and bad things, but I thought, let’s do good from now on," he said. “This is a good place to start. Let’s save someone’s life.”

"I’ve taken enough out of life myself. I’ve got beautiful children, a beautiful partner, it’s time for me to give something back," he told the BBC.

"If I’m in a position — which I am — to give Sally her life, then, why not?"

Grainger and Joyce are now good friends. They met up in the hospital following the successful operation. Both are recovering well.

"I’m feeling really good," Joyce told the Worcester News.

"A big thank you to everyone who has made this happen and to everyone who has supported me. And a massive thank you to the love of my life Jill, without her this wouldn’t be possible."

Grainger said she was already feeling much better and felt very lucky.

"Thanks for everyone’s kind messages and support," she said.

"I put an appeal out because I wanted to be able to spend as much time as possible with my girls while I’m healthy, and live longer than six years, hopefully," Grainger told Sky News.

"I felt sick, overjoyed, overwhelmed — I can’t pick out one word that describes my gratitude and thanks for what he’s done for me. It’s just amazing," she said of Joyce’s life-saving donation.

“I expect we will all be friends will Sally-Anne and her family forever,” Joyce’s wife, Jill, told the Worcester News yesterday as her husband was recovering at home.

Because of the transplant, Joyce now hopes to work with prisoners and for a kidney charity in the near future.

"He has turned his life around and wants to do something positive," Jill said.

While the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust said it was thrilled about the successful transplant, it emphasized it “would strongly discourage the use of media or social media in soliciting donors.”

The hospital is using this story as an opportunity to urge people to sign up to the Organ Donor Register.

You can sign up to be an organ donor in Canada by visiting the Government of Canada website, and following the link to your province’s organ donation registry.