Surprise Surprise as dad donates kidney to a perfect stranger

A DAD decided to donate one of his kidneys to a total stranger while watching tear-jerking telly programme Surprise Surprise.

John Gilmour said he instantly knew he had to go under the surgeon’s knife while watching an item on kidney donation on the hit ITV show, presented by Holly Willoughby.

The 48-year-old’s organ has now been gifted to a mystery recipient who lives on Merseyside.

John has exchanged brief letters with the person who got his kidney but doesn’t know who they are and has never spoken to them in person.

He said it would be a “privilege” to meet them and that his “heart would always be open to that request”.

He said: “I’m just so happy that I could help and that someone, somewhere, is living a happy and healthy life with their family. That keeps my soul content.”

The father-of-three from Largs, North Ayrshire, donated the kidney six years after his life changed dramatically when he collapsed while out running on Bute.

He suffered two devastating brain haemorrhages and believes he was afforded a “second chance in life”.

After his collapse, John was airlifted to the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, in a critical condition on Guy Fawkes Night in 2009.

He was an enthusiastic runner who had completed half-marathons for charity and had no warning that his life was soon to be in danger.

He said: “I was a fit fellow, I worked hard and I had a positive lifestyle and no worries. I’d joined a running club and loved going out with them.

“It all happened so suddenly. If I hadn’t been tended to quickly by firemen who were out because of the night it was I’d most likely have died.”

He needed two major operations and suffered memory problems. Rehabilitation took more than two years, before he was able to return to work as a gravedigger.

John was watching Surprise Surprise with wife Claire, 46, when he was hit by a thunderbolt.

Incredibly moved by a touching piece about kidney donation he immediately “told Claire it was something I was going to look into”.

“I went to see the donor team in Glasgow and from that moment I had the overwhelming feeling that this was the reason I was here. I knew this was something I had to do.”

John’s own life has gone through major changes since his brush with death. He and Claire have become busy foster carers and have adopted Keira, who is now six.

Then there is his support for Spirit Aid, a charity run by actor David Hayman which raises money for children in Africa.

John was involved with the charity before his collapse, helping to set up a food programme in Malawi which now feeds more than 1,000 youngsters a day.

Among other things, he helps organise an annual fundraising comedy night for the charity, collecting auction items from sports clubs and personalities.

He’s even had a tattoo that marks the kidney transplant. John said: “It includes the living donor symbol for strength and hope for life.”

John a Glasgow Commonwealth Games baton carrier in 2014 is now looking to help publicise the work of the Give A Kidney charity. Its aim is to raise awareness of non-directed kidney donation, the act of a healthy living person giving one of their kidneys to someone in need of one on the NHS waiting list.

More than 400 people in the UK have now donated a kidney to someone they do not know and anyone interested in finding out more can visit www.giveakidney.org.

Around 1,000 living kidney donor transplants take place each year in the UK, most of them from family and friends of the recipient.

Kidneys transplanted from living donors generally work better and last longer than those from deceased donors.

Those transplants can save the NHS approximately £20,000 per year over the cost of dialysis.