By Liz Baker
This week (September 21-27) is organ donation week, an annual event, and a chance to focus attention on the importance of organ donation and the need for more donors.
Some 8,500 people are currently in need of a transplant to save or improve their lives.
Candice McKenzie waited almost three and a half years for a kidney transplant – and when the call came, she nearly missed it.
The 44-year-old, who lives in Margate and is a podcast producer, DJ and broadcaster, was working from home, and had popped upstairs leaving her mobile phone downstairs.
She heard it buzzing but didn’t think it was a call telling her that a kidney match had been found. After three missed calls, her house phone rang. Thinking it could be an emergency, she answered, and was given the life-changing news.
Candice said: “You pray that one day the call will come, but you also don’t think “this is it” every time the phone rings.
“I’m so grateful that I was also called on the house phone, so I was able to have the transplant.
“No one ever calls me on it. I had only asked my renal team to list it on my records a few weeks earlier due to poor mobile reception in my house.
“I never thought the call would be about a transplant, I kept asking the doctor if he was joking, but he was so serious. After a series of questions and another call from the transplant team, I had to make my way to Guys Hospital.”
Candice’s journey to needing a transplant began in 2019 when she started to feel very tired. Initially she believed it was because she was busy working as an events officer so became began ensuring she got plenty of rest. But when that didn’t help, her mum encouraged her to speak to her GP and she went to get a blood test.
Candice was at work when she received a call from her GP telling her to go straight to hospital. The days that followed were filled with more blood tests, a scan, and a kidney biopsy, which led to the diagnosis of a rare condition called IgA nephropathy (IgAN), where a protein becomes ‘stuck’ in the filters of the kidney. Candice was diagnosed at stage four, one stage away from kidney failure.
Candice said: “My first question was ‘am I going to die?’
“I had no idea what IgAN was, it was a huge relief when the answer was no.
“But I was told that my kidneys would fail at some point so I went on a mission to change what I could, in a bid to keep them going for as long as possible.
“I was already pretty healthy, I don’t smoke and I don’t drink – but there were little things, like my weekly packet of crisps, that I decided to cut because salt is bad for the kidneys.”
Dialysis
Candice’s efforts were not in vain, as she managed two years without significant deterioration. However, by 2022 her kidney function had dropped to just six per cent and she started peritoneal dialysis (PD) at home, a treatment where bags of fluid containing a special solution flow in and out of the abdomen via a tube to absorb and remove the waste that the kidneys can’t tackle.
She said: “I had to do four fluid exchanges a day, so it was a bit tricky to fit everything in around them.
“Travelling for work became difficult for many reasons including the strict timing of the fluid exchanges, ensuring the environment where the dialysis was taking place was clean, safe and sterile, and maintaining all the medical supplies needed to administer the treatment. It was easier to stay at home, stay local, live life and try and make the best of it.”
Unfortunately, due to complications with PD, Candice developed pneumonia in March 2023 and ended up spending several months in hospital.
She said: “I had put on 10kg, but it was all fluid and I needed an operation to remove it. I ended up spending eight months in and out of hospital.
“This experience with PD led me to switch to haemodialysis (HD), three sessions a week, each lasting four hours, at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
“Dialysis is hard, it is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting, but it is also a blessing. My kidney function was basically non-existent and without it I would have died, so I am very grateful to have received the treatment, but it does come with its own set of challenges.”
She had been suspended from the transplant waiting list while she battled infections but was added again once her condition stabilised.
Advocacy
Her experience with kidney disease and the challenges she faced led her to become increasingly involved in kidney health advocacy. In March 2024, Candice founded the African Caribbean Kidney Education Enterprise® (ACKEE), a community interest company focused on raising awareness of kidney health and organ donation within African Caribbean communities.
Candice received a kidney transplant in September 2025, after three and a half years of waiting.
She said: “I waited 1,249 days, almost three and a half years, but I consider myself quite lucky because I know people whose wait is longer.
“Having a transplant is life changing, I am eternally grateful. Every day I wake up feeling so blessed.
“It never escapes me that someone died to save my life. I am eternally grateful to my donor and their family for saying yes and I do my best every day to look after the precious gift that I have been blessed with.”
You can find more information on organ donation and register your decision at https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/
Leave a Reply