For more than a decade and a half, Lucy Humphrey of Caerphilly, Wales, has been living with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that brings with it inflammation and pain. Then in 2019, she learned that her kidneys were failing and she would need a transplant to survive. Just before getting the devastating news, she and her partner Cenydd Owen had bought a campervan and planned on taking weekend trips with their dogs, but Lucy’s medical treatments meant they had to put those plans on hold.
Then in June of 2021, Lucy and Cenydd planned a two-day trip across Wales, but when the day came Lucy wasn’t well enough to make the journey, so they settled for a trip to a Cold Knap beach, which was closer to their home. It was there that they had a chance meeting with local Katie James. They invited Katie to join them for dinner and after talking a bit, shared that Lucy was waiting on a life-saving kidney. As luck would have it, Katie had just signed up to be a living kidney donor.
The women exchanged numbers and contacted a donor coordinator the next day. Tests revealed that they were a perfect match, a one-in-22-million chance. Then in October of last year, they underwent a successful transplant surgery in Cardiff. Lucy says the transplant instantly changed her life. She and Cenydd are grateful for the chance encounter and say it’s a reminder that there are "a lot of good people out there."
Source: BBC
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