There are some well-known events that still have astronomical odds of actually happening. Winning the lottery, being struck by lightning, that sort of thing. A lot of these things are medical related, with some illnesses being extremely rare and others having low odds of ever being cured.
A woman from Wales encountered one of these extremely low-odd medical happenings, with an unexpected source helping find her an organ donor right when she needed it most.
Needing a transplant of any kind is a very rough thing to experience. Knowing an organ in your body is failing you, with the only solution being to take on someone else's to replace your own? It's scary, it's existential, and sometimes, it doesn't happen in time.
Most large organ transplants have incredibly long waitlists, and other, relatively smaller transplants like kidneys require a perfect match in order for your body to not reject them. Finding that perfect match can be extremely difficult, but luckily for one woman, she wasn't searching alone.
Lucy Humphrey, a 44-year-old woman from Caerphilly, Wales, has been living with lupus her entire adult life. In 2017, doctors told her that if she didn't find a new kidney within the next 5 years or so, it was likely that she would die.
She needed regular kidney dialysis, and one time, that treatment, unfortunately, coincided with a trip that she and her partner, Cenydd, had planned. They canceled the trip and instead did a day visit to the beach for a barbeque.
With them were their two Dobermans. While there, one of the dogs, named Indie, continually ran over to another person on the beach, a woman sitting in the sand crocheting.
After a few of Indie's interruptions, Cenydd went over to apologize. That was how he met 40-year-old Katie James. She wasn't bothered by Indie's visits at all, so she and Cenydd began to chat before he invited her over for some barbeque.
It was there that Cenydd and Lucy shared their story and Lucy's need for a kidney. By sheer coincidence, Katie had just joined the kidney donation register.
They exchanged phone numbers and agreed to run some blood tests. Miraculously, shockingly, and incredibly, Katie was a perfect match for Lucy. Katie would be able to give Lucy her kidney.
Lucy originally believed it wouldn't go anywhere. "To be honest, I didn't think anything else would come of it," she told the Daily Record.
The transplant did happen in October of 2022, just in time for the deadline the doctors gave her. It took a few weeks for the kidney to fully take to its new host, but once it got working, it went perfectly.
Lucy and Cenydd were able to go on the trip they had planned, and Katie got to know exactly whose life her kidney saved, something that's not guaranteed when you sign up for the kidney donation register.
The three remain friends, having forged a bond over an incredibly unlikely scenario that ended in something beautiful. The odds of this happening, of Lucy's dog stumbling upon a perfect donor match, was 1-in-22-million.
"I'm so grateful for her," Lucy said. "I told my partner [...] if I didn’t find a transplant within five years it was possible something would happen and I would die."
"I want this to be a message to other people not to give up hope."
Katie is hoping this story inspires more people to be kidney donors. "If [kidney donation] is something you've ever considered or you’re considering now because you’ve heard this story, then look into it," she said.
After this whole ordeal, Lucy believes, and surely many agree, that the world "could use more people like Katie."
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