Photo: Supplied by Eric Trump.
Dunedin man Eric Trump was born with one kidney, which was failing by the time he was 29, and he needed a transplant.
It came from his 54-year-old aunt, and he has gone on to live a relatively normal life.
It is 70 years since the first successful transplant when American surgeon Joseph Murray transplanted a kidney from Ronald Herrick into his twin brother Richard.
The twins shared immunity was a way around immunity rejection, which had scuppered previous attempts when the body treated the new organ as a foreign object and attacked it.
Since then, organ transplants have become commonplace thanks to immunosuppressant drugs, and the World Health Organisation estimates more than 1 million people worldwide have had an organ transplant.
Organ Donation New Zealand says there are about 500 people on a waiting list for kidneys in this country.
The organisation's co-ordinator Sue Garland talks to Kathryn, and Eric Trump shares his journey.
