Long transplant wait for Gwent kidney brothers (From South Wales Argus)

Long transplant wait for Gwent kidney brothers (From South Wales Argus)

BROTHERS Tony and Alan Morgan are on opposite sides of the organ transplant divide.

While Tony, 68, needs a new kidney to free him from the thrice-weekly demands of the dialysis that keeps him going, 66-year-old Alan continues to benefit from the donor kidney he received more than four years ago.

As a former chauffeur, Pontypool-born Tony, who lives in rural Monmouthshire, near Abergavenny, was used to covering hundreds of miles a week between South Wales and London whilst working for peers and company directors.

But now his biggest journeys are those making up the 180 miles a week he must travel by ambulance car to Cardiff and back for his vital treatment.

Tony is one of almost 500 people in Wales awaiting an organ transplant, though almost a quarter of these are currently suspended from the list, mainly due to illness.