An 83-year-old man has achieved a double by becoming the oldest living kidney donor in the UK and the oldest person in the country to give a kidney to a stranger.
But Nicholas Crace isn't done yet. "I've given blood 57 times," the pensioner said. "There's not much of me left to give while I'm alive but they can have the rest when I'm no longer here."
The former charity director, from Overton, Hampshire, is the latest member of an exclusive club known as altruistic donors - someone who gives a kidney to somebody on the NHS waiting list whom they do not know. The operation was carried out recently at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth.
The widower underwent 14 tests over six months before receiving approval for the operation . He was told that his kidneys functioned as well as someone in their 40s.
Crace said: "The kidney has to be in tip-top condition. I don't smoke but I drink more than they say you should. I must have selected my parents well. "
A volunteer driver for a local hospice, Crace was back on his bicycle and mowing the lawn three days after the operation. He would give more bodily donations if he could. He said: "It's nice at 83 to still be of service."
Source: The Independent

