Helping kidney transplant patients

Lehla, a kidney transplant patient supported by HHI

In India, kidneys are transplanted only from living donors who must be family members. Often the donor is a spouse, which means that the match may not be good, and as a result large doses of immunosuppressant drugs are necessary to prevent the patient from rejecting the new kidney. Such drugs are very expensive, and beyond the reach of many patients who have already had to pay for the transplant operation. As a result, at best they face very difficult choices, and at worst they cannot afford the drugs and die.

Kidney patients shortly after their transplant operations

HHI helps nearly twenty of the poorest of these people by providing some of the medicines that they need - five days' medication a month or more, depending on the level of need. Every month the medicines are distributed. Even though we get a reduced price for these life-saving medicines, they still cost us nearly £500 a month. It is only through the generosity of our supporters that we are able to continue doing this.

Babu, one of our first kidney transplant patients.