Vascular Nurse Specialist Sharon Senior’s organ donation story has come full circle. Having once been a patient receiving treatment whilst waiting for a kidney transplant, she now helps others going through the same process.

Sharon was diagnosed 18 years ago with crescentic glomerulonephritis secondary to vasculitis, which is an autoimmune disease which can lead to kidney failure. She began renal dialysis at HRI in 2017 and was on the organ donation waiting list for five years before receiving her kidney transplant in 2021.

Throughout this time Sharon continued to work in various nursing roles within CHFT, and now works as a vascular nurse specialist at both CHFT and Bradford Teaching Hospitals.

Sharon said: “My organ donation experience certainly inspired me to want to make a difference to patients with renal failure awaiting possible transplant and fistula formation for dialysis. A lot of patients come to see me and my colleagues as a stepping stone to keeping them well until they’re ready for transplant.

“I see patients come into clinic and you can see in their face they look terrified, they see comeider renal failure as life ending. When I’m counselling them for fistula formation, I find it important to get across that when you’re on treatments like dialysis it doesn’t mean you can’t do normal things. When it was happening to me, I made the conscious decision that renal disease was going to fit around me and not the other way around. I am more than just Sharon with kidney disease. I’m a mother, I’m a wife, I’m a nurse."

To coincide with Organ Donation Week (23rd – 29th September), Sharon wants to spread awareness of how important it is for registered donors to discuss their intentions with close family. It’s within a family’s right to overturn donor’s decisions for organ donation - resulting in hundreds of missed opportunities for transplants every year. The best way to stop this from happening is by having open conversations with loved ones to help them understand.  

Sharon said: “Having been a recipient, and having also known people who have donated, I think it is one of the single most selfless things anyone can ever do for a person.

“It has given me my life back, and my children their mum back.”