'Incredible' workmate becomes life-saving hero

How far would you go for a workmate?
Lend them your allocated car park? Cover them in an important meeting?
Save their life?
For Karen Mills, the decision to risk her own health for that of a colleague was a decision made from compassion but also maternal instinct.
"I couldn't have children of my own and I felt this was my gift of life. It just sort of came at the right time for me.
"It felt like the right thing to do," she says simply.
What Karen did, was undergo nine months of medical testing and donate one of her kidneys to the man who taught in the classroom next to her at Tauranga Intermediate School.
The pair did not know each other before they worked together.
Four years ago, multi-media teacher Ian Henderson was suffering end stage renal failure.
Karen says she, like other teachers at school, knew Ian was waiting to hear if a friend was compatible as a donor.
He could only receive from O blood types and, unfortunately, his friend didn't match. When he broke the devastating news to a few teacher friends, Karen made an impulsive decision.
"I went into my wallet and I got my blood donor card out and I was the right blood type," she says.
Over the next six weeks, without saying anything to anyone, Karen went on the internet and researched kidney donation.
"I just sat with it and asked myself does it feel right? Was it going to make me die earlier? Put me at risk?"
When Karen had made her decision, she talked to her husband, Rod, and then her parents.
She also secretly approached Ian's partner Sonjae, to be sure it would work before raising Ian's hopes.
 Ian said Karen's offer came "completely out of the blue".
"To the uninitiated, donating a kidney is hardly a minor procedure. Yet Karen was undaunted and adamant," he said.
The first signs of Ian getting sick were in 2006. He was tired, getting cramps and his arm wouldn't stop itching.
His doctor ran tests that showed Ian's kidney capacity was running at just 30 per cent. A build up of urea in the blood also meant Ian was living in what felt like "a fog".
"I started to do the old man thing and came home and had a sleep in the afternoons.
"I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure - in other words my kidneys were failing - fast."
Despite being told a transplant wouldn't be needed for three to four years, Ian needed one just 18 months later.
"Options were put in front of me, none of which were more than a stop-gap resulting in a quality of life reduction which scared the hell out of me. I eventually resigned myself to letting this thing run its own course, whatever that might be."
By 2008, his condition was worsening and just after Easter, he found himself in Waikato Hospital.
By now his kidney function was at 4 per cent. He had dialysis for four months while waiting to see if Karen was compatible and, during that time, his past students' parents made up a roster and ferried him back and forward between Hamilton and Tauranga.
Two months later, on May 28, Ian and Karen had surgery at Auckland Hospital.
Four months after the transplant, Karen got a tattoo in the place near where her kidney once was.
Inked in her skin is the date of the operation, pink beads representing herself, blue beads representing Ian and red beads representing the blood that ties them.
The two families now celebrate a "kidney-versary" every year.
Ian and Karen are both healthy and expect to live long lives, despite regular health checks and daily anti-rejection medication for Ian.
Karen says she never once felt like it was the wrong decision.
Her gift has enabled Ian to get married and become a granddad.
It's also linked him with a special friend, responsible for giving him his life back.
"How does a person say thank you?" Ian says.
"My incredible workmate has become my hero."
 
LAST YEAR'S NUMBERS
* 43 organ donations in total, in New Zealand.
* 54 kidneys donated from deceased donors.
* 67 kidneys donated from living donors.
* The first live kidney transplantation in New Zealand was in May, 1965.
 
Kidney transplantation
*Allows people whose own kidneys have stopped functioning to lead normal lives again without having to be dependent on dialysis treatment.
* Dialysis is a process that removes waste products and fluids from the blood stream that are normally removed by healthy kidneys.
* Kidney transplantation is very successful with 92 per cent of all kidneys functioning one year after the transplant operation and 73 per cent after five years.
* Phone 0800 4 DONOR for information on organ donation.
www.donor.co.nz