Kieran Bravely Agreed to Give His Sick Sister a Kidney to Save Her Life. But in an Astonishing Twist of Fate, He Saved His Own As Well ; When Kieran Courtney, 34, Offered to Donate a Kidney to His Sister Anna, 33, He Had No Idea That by so Doing He'd Actually Save His Own Life. Here, Kieran, a Management Consultant From Worcester, Who Now Lives in Southern Italy, Tells His Amazing Story to Sue Cocker. Good Health

Daily Mail › April 26, 2005

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Summary

LOOKING out of the train window on my way back from hospital, my mind raced through the day's events. Everything had started out so well. I'd gone to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham for a series of tests to see if I'd be a suitable kidney donor match for my sister, Anna.

All the signs were good until a scan revealed a large tumour in one of my testicles. Suddenly the whole process came to a dramatic halt as doctors told me I could no longer be a donor and would need urgent surgery myself.

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Extract

Kieran Bravely Agreed to Give His Sick Sister a Kidney to Save Her Life. But in an Astonishing Twist of Fate, He Saved His Own As Well ; When Kieran Courtney, 34, Offered to Donate a Kidney to His Sister Anna, 33, He Had No Idea That by so Doing He'd Actually Save His Own Life. Here, Kieran, a Management Consultant From Worcester, Who Now Lives in Southern Italy, Tells His Amazing Story to Sue Cocker. Good Health

In less than a day I'd gone from helping to save Anna's life to battling for my own. I was terrified for myself, and devastated that I couldn't help my sister.

Anna was diagnosed with reflux nephropathy as a child, an hereditary condition where the kidneys are damaged by a backward flow of urine.

For years doctors thought she would grow o...

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