Family’s decade awaiting organ transplants as figures show Black patients suffer donor shortage

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A woman has described the trauma of watching family members wait more than a decade for an organ transplant before she herself was diagnosed with kidney failure, as NHS figures show Black and Asian people wait six months longer for a donor. “Miraculously, I received my new kidney quite quickly - after just six months and one day.” According to the new figures, a growing number of ethnic minorities in the UK continue to wait for lifesaving transplants, with thousands left “in limbo”; the best match for an organ comes from someone of the same ethnicity. During the “agonising” countdown for a new kidney, Ms Granville felt like a “hypocrite” because few people knew that she was living with end-stage renal failure. Issues like this fuel the organ shortage we’re seeing.” open image in gallery Some six in ten people on a waiting list for an organ transplant in London were of Black or Asian heritage as of March 2022, according to data released by NHS Blood and Transplant on Thursday Belinda Otas, from London, is currently waiting on dialysis for her third kidney transplant which she describes it as “the gift of a second chance”.