Hannah Magowan, one of the specialist transplant surgeons at Belfast City Hospital, who performed Sean’s transplant and helped with Una’s surgery, said the sharing scheme had been operating in Northern Ireland since 2010.
She said it had helped almost 200 people here receive a living-donor transplant.
In 2025/26 alone, 20 of the 69 living-donor kidney transplants took place through the scheme – almost three in every 10.
Magowan said Northern Ireland had become the biggest subscribers and contributors to the scheme, despite accounting for about 3% of the UK population.
She said Belfast was described as the “capital” of kidney sharing because of the number of patients and donors coming forward.
However she added there was probably a lack of awareness about the sharing scheme as “another method of donation”, even among people living with kidney disease.
Magowan said living-donor transplants could help patients avoid dialysis, as in Sean’s case, and potentially lengthy waits for a deceased-donor kidney.
“It’s the gift of life for someone who can’t avail of a direct donation,” she added. “That’s sharing at its best.”
Sean and Una are recovering well and intend to return to work before Christmas.
Una wanted to reassure people that she would soon be back leading a “perfectly normal” life with just one kidney.
“We’re now looking to the future and if Sean gets another 37 years we’ll be doing very, very well,” she added.
Una said she would never know much about who received her kidney other than they were critically ill and the transplant was successful.
“You don’t need to know someone to change their life,” she said.
“That’s the gift of life through the sharing scheme – the fact that you are making that difference.”
Sean could not put into words how he felt about his wife, who had given him “the gift of life again”.
He hopes their “phenomenal journey” will encourage more people to consider living donation.
