Deborah's borrowed kidney still works 15 years on — now a £5.2 million (about $7.1 million) network wants that chance for thousands more

Deborah Bakewell, 70, was the first person in the world to receive a kidney that had been kept alive outside the body on a perfusion machine — warmed, oxygenated fluid flowing through it so doctors could check and repair it before transplant. Fifteen years later, that kidney is still working. 'Every day I get to spend with my family — free of dialysis — really does feel like I've won the lottery,' she says. Now a £5.2 million (about $7.1 million) network, PERFUSE-UK, will set national standards for the technique across five transplant centres — Cambridge, London, Oxford, Edinburgh and Newcastle. It matters because more than 300 donated kidneys are thrown away each year as too risky, yet experts believe most could be made transplantable this way — while over 7,200 people wait for a kidney in the UK.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program