The idea of making such a difference to a sick person’s life became a tantalising thought he came back to again and again.

“It hit a nerve with me on so many levels, and it actually baffles me about why it doesn’t strike a nerve with more people,” Liston, 57, said.

It took a few years before he first broached the idea of donating one of his kidneys to a stranger with his family.

However, back then, the timing wasn’t right, with his children still in school.

Once his children became adults, he visited his GP to kick off the process of donating a kidney.

Liston was told by doctors he would need to lose 13 kilograms in order to become a suitable donor.

He put in the work and lost the weight.

Liston then underwent a series of medical and psychological tests before he was given the tick of approval.

His kidney donation went ahead a few years ago. 

Liston said his recovery from the operation was straightforward.

“It’s not as big as people make it out to be,” he said.

“If you’re an office worker, you can actually be back to work in about two weeks.

“I had to be off for six weeks because lifting is involved in the work that I do, and there’s a risk of a hernia.”

Under the federal government’s Supporting Living Organ Donors program, donors can claim up to 342 hours of leave from work, paid at minimum wage, and $1000 in out-of-pocket medical costs. 

Liston said the knowledge of what he had done would stay with him for life.

“Some people will achieve an Olympic gold, which is something they’ve worked very hard for and will have forever.

“Other people can do a doctorate and discover something new. But, for the average person who is never going to break a world record, or is not a genius, this is something almost anyone can do.

“I don’t get a buzz out of driving a nice car, or drinking fine wine. The biggest buzz I get is out of helping people.”

Unless someone is donating their kidney to someone they know, the process is strictly anonymous.

Liston will probably never know where his kidney went, and he likes it that way.

“I actually love the idea that it could be in anyone,” he said.

People who give up a kidney to a stranger are called altruistic donors, and they often set off a chain of matches because they are not already paired with a recipient.

Liston said his donated kidney started a chain of more than 10 people.

“I was told at the time it was an Australian record, which I hope gets broken, if it hasn’t already,” he said.

Altruistic donations remain rare

In Australia, there are around 1400 people in need of a kidney transplant, with the waitlist time averaging about 2.2 years, according to Kidney Health Australia.

About two-thirds of kidney transplants come from deceased donors, and the rest are from living donations.

Dr Stella McGinn is the deputy director of the Australian and New Zealand Paired Kidney Exchange, which is run by the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The program accounts for about a third of all live kidney donations in Australia.

It allows friends and family who want to donate a kidney to a loved one but aren’t a good medical match, to be paired with others in the same situation.

The exchange also accepts donations from altruistic donors, however, it was still relatively rare to see people giving one of their kidneys to a stranger in Australia, McGinn said.

In 2019, the Australian program joined forces with New Zealand, where altruistic donations are slightly more common.

The partnership saw the number of altruistic donors immediately shoot up, from a couple a year, to around 10 in both 2022 and 2023.

Last year, there were six altruistic donors in the program, and so far this year, three.

In Australia, kidney transplants have a high success rate – over 94 per cent of transplants are working one year later, according to Kidney Health Australia.

Live kidney transplants tend to fare slightly better than those from deceased donors, because of the planned nature of the operation and the high level of screening for donors.

McGinn said it was now common for kidney transplants from live donors to last around 20 years.

“If you get a good kidney, and you look after it, it can see you for a very long time. A man in our hospital has got a deceased donor kidney, and he’s had it for 53 years,” she said.

Crisis as dialysis burden in Australia grows

The article found hospitals are struggling to meet the growing demand for dialysis services, with people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds most affected by the growing crisis.

The strain on these centres has led to compromised dialysis care, with some patients, even those with minimal residual kidney function, receiving dialysis twice a week instead of three.

Seth Holm knows what it is like to spend years on dialysis. 

The 24-year-old, from Perth, was born with his bladder outside of his body.

After multiple surgeries and a lot of setbacks, his kidneys failed when he was 14 years old.

Holm’s mum, Michelle Radis, was able to donate one of her kidneys to him after he had been on dialysis for two years.

Although the pair was not an ideal match, the transplant lasted almost seven years.

The kidney has since failed and Holm has been back on dialysis for the past 18 months.

Radis said the difference the transplant made to her son’s life was incredible, especially in the first few years after the operation.

“He was actually able to get a job for a short time – he did bricklaying for a bit and he loved it,” she said.

These days, her son was rarely well enough to leave the house, she said.

“Over the last two years, he’s had quite a lot of things go wrong, and he’s ended up in a coma twice, once from fluid overload and another time from COVID,” she said.

Holm has dialysis treatment every second day at home, with each session lasting 4-6 hours.

“He gets really tired from dialysis,” she said. 

“All he wants to do is get his life back … he said to me the other day he would do anything to be able to go out and work.” 

Holm was recently cleared to go back on the transplant list, but, having had one transplant already, he has antibodies that will make it harder to find a match.

With no other living relatives able to donate, Radis said she was holding out hope they could find someone willing to give up a kidney for her son.

“Waiting on the deceased donor list is something I hope Seth doesn’t have to go through.”

“I would give him my other kidney if I could.”