A KIND-hearted pensioner who donated one of her kidneys to help a total stranger is urging other people to consider doing the same.

Anne Albright was aged 70 when she made the altruistic donation last year, despite not knowing the recipient of the organ.

And she said just knowing the transplant was a success and made a real difference to the recipient’s life was enough to justify her decision.

Now 71, Mrs Albright said: “It was a real bonus for me to feel that, although I had not been able to give life at the beginning of my life, I was able to give life to someone now I am nearer the end.”

Mrs Albright said she decided to donate a kidney because she had always considered herself “a healer”, having worked as a nurse and then later on as a private practice physiotherapist.

Although people are born with two kidneys, a person can function normally with only one and living kidney donations are becoming more common.

Mrs Albright, of Wood Norton, near Evesham, initially only told two of her closest friends, who both told her they were “shocked but not surprised”. She then had to undergo several tests and several months of monitoring on both medical and psychological grounds before going ahead with the operation in Oxford, last August.

“My kidney was couriered to another hospital and given to the gentleman receiving it the same afternoon,” said Mrs Albright, who has no children.

“The next morning the hospital staff came in with huge smiles and told me that he was sat out of bed and doing well.

“I was so pleased and it was such a wonderful feeling.”

Although Mrs Albright has never met the man who received her kidney, and knows nothing about him, she received a thank you card and letter that she “treasures”.

It read: “Your sacrifice will give me a chance to live life to the full again. My family and I will always cherish in our hearts this experience of being helped by you.”

Mrs Albright was inspired to share her story after seeing reports that organ donation rates have soared over the last five years. According to NHS Blood and Transplant, more than 2,100 people in the UK donated their organs in the last year, leading to about 3,900 transplants.

However, the service is still desperate to find more donors and, with living donations to strangers still a relatively new practice, she feels many may not be aware of it.

“A lot of people think it is only dying people who can do something like this, but that is not the case,” she said.