News

With this kidney I thee wed . . .

By Rob McLaren

A COUPLE who met while on kidney dialysis at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee toasted their good health as they were married yesterday. 

Since meeting in 2005, Peter Gillespie (34) and Susan Mackie (37) have had successful kidney transplants. 

It was a particularly emotional day for Peter’s mother Barbara, who donated one of her kidneys to her son. 
Peter, originally from Glasgow, was first told he had kidney problems in 1992 when he was still at school. A doctor said he wouldn’t need to go into dialysis immediately but there were likely to be problems in the future. 
His kidney coped until 2004, when he was working as a research scientist in New York. 

Transplant

Unable to get a match for a transplant, and facing a long wait, Peter returned to Dundee a year later where he got back his old job working for Cancer Research UK at Dundee University.

For three nights a week he faced a four-hour dialysis session to clean his blood — but found he started to look forward to these because of the company he shared with Susan. 

She had faced kidney problems since she was 22 and had a transplant in 1998. Unfortunately, five and a half years later, the disease reoccurred and she had to go back on dialysis. 

She said, “Peter and I had the same dialysis times. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we’d be hooked up to the machines for four hours. 

“We got on straight away. He asked me out in December 2005 and a year later we were engaged.”

It was the end of a life-changing year for Peter. In April he had undergone a successful transplant. 

“As soon as I came back here my mum insisted that I take a kidney from her,” said Peter.

“I tried to talk her out of it as doctors don’t like someone going through an unnecessary procedure. But my mum wasn’t budging and, after six months of being unable to get a match, I relented.

“Thankfully it was a successful operation for both of us. I’m enormously grateful to her. But I did joke in my wedding speech that it would mean a part of her is coming on honeymoon with us!”

Meanwhile Susan, who works for Angus Council’s revenues department, continued spending 12 hours a week on dialysis until this February.

Then one Sunday morning a call came to get to Edinburgh as quickly as possible — a match had been found for a transplant. The operation was a complete success. 

Monifieth-born Susan continued, “We couldn’t rely on getting a transplant. We were determined to go ahead with the wedding even if I was still on dialysis.

Donate

“My mum, Isobel, had also come forward offering to donate to me but then a perfect match was found.”

Yesterday’s wedding at Westpark Conference Centre in Dundee hosted 70 guests. 

But Peter and Susan weren’t forgetting how they met — at the bar there were organ donor cards and the couple were encouraging as many people as possible to sign up. 

“Before the transplant we both had to be very careful about what we ate,” said Peter. “Things you’d think would be healthy, such as fruit and vegetables, are actually bad because they have a lot of potassium. It makes the wedding even better that we can eat and drink what we like on our special day.”