Welshwoman’s Dog Finds Kidney Donor On Vacation

A Welshwoman with late-stage renal failure met a kidney donor on the beach while vacationing with her two Dobermans. Forty-four year old Lucy Humphrey has lived her whole adult life with lupus and in 2017, her doctors told her that if she couldn’t find a new kidney in 5-year’s time, there was a chance she would die. Requiring kidney dialysis, Humphrey and her partner Cenydd Owen had to cancel their campervan holiday and so decided to drive to the beach for a barbeque instead.

While there, one of their two Dobermans, a big lug called Indie, kept running over to another camper to pester her while she was crocheting. By the third time, Owen went over to apologize and the camper, Katie James, was soon over at the barbeque chatting with Humphrey. That’s when James learned that Humphrey needed a kidney.

James mentioned that she had just joined the kidney donation register and offered to swap phone numbers. Humphrey said “To be honest I didn’t think anything else would come of it.” Blood tests later revealed the two campers were a perfect match, something which Humphrey described as a 1-in-22 million chance. The transplant took place in October of 2022, after which Humphrey needed 4 weeks to be discharged from the hospital due to James’ donated kidney not “waking up” fast enough.

James said when she first signed up she was told she wouldn’t receive any information on what her donated kidney would accomplish, whether it saved a life or not, or even who it went to. Now, she not only knows for sure it saved a woman’s life, but it has created a lasting friendship. Humphrey said “I’m so grateful for her… I told my partner in 2019 if I didn’t find a transplant within five years it was possible something would happen and I would die. I just want this to be a message to other people not to give up hope.”