Lorraine, a 37-year-old restaurant supervisor from Hampshire, has been waiting for a kidney transplant for almost five years. Three days a week she has to attend hospital for gruelling dialysis sessions. Lately her condition has deteriorated and she is now too ill to work.

For people in Lorraine’s situation — and there are more than 6,000 on kidney transplant waiting lists in Britain today — there have, until now, been only two solutions: a donor kidney from someone who has died carrying an organ donor card, or a kidney from a live relative.

The first option is problematic. Fewer than 1,300 kidneys are taken from the dead each year in Britain because so few people carry donor cards. Even when a card is carried, the victim’s relatives often overrule their wishes. Perversely, perhaps, a common objection cited by relatives is that the dead person has “already suffered enough”.

That leaves a donation from a live relative as the only reliable option for people in Lorraine’s position, but this is far from straightforward. In her case, her boyfriend Peter, her two sisters Tracie and Julie, and her niece Kayleigh, have offered to donate but none is a suitable match.

“There are a host of variables, such as blood and tissue type, which mean the chances of finding a match with a relative are no better than about one in four”, said Keith Rigg, a consultant renal transplant surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Now British doctors have come up with a possible solution — a super kidney swap, in which groups of up to 50 patients and their non-matching donor partners will be operated on simultaneously.

It sounds like something from a reality TV show — the idea has been borrowed from South Korea — but it makes statistical sense: by creating a “pool” of kidneys to simultaneously draw from, the chances of finding a match are increased dramatically.

“The pool gives more permutations for possible matches,” said Rigg. “It is anticipated that about 20 compatible pairs will be found from the 50 couples or sets of relatives.”

Doctors have recruited 50 potential couples to the scheme, including Lorraine and Peter, and hope to start operating this spring. Initially 20 couples will be involved and the swaps kept simple. If they run smoothly, more complicated chains of operations will be attempted.

Such are the complications and ethical concerns surrounding the scheme that special permission was needed for it to go ahead. It was only in September that the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), the government body that regulates the use of human tissue, introduced rules to allow pooled donations of this sort. “It’s a difficult business and the stakes are high. For example, the operations will be carried out simultaneously to prevent donors pulling out or falling ill after their partner has received a new kidney from the pool”, said Dr Jonathan Kwan, a consultant nephrologist who runs the renal unit at Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

WHEN Peter, a 46-year-old engineer, heard of the scheme, he immediately put his name forward to enter the pool.

“I think this is an excellent scheme,” he said last week. “I am in favour of anything that increases Lorraine’s chance of getting a suitable kidney. I may not be giving Lorraine my kidney but by donating a kidney I’m giving her a chance of becoming well again.”

Despite there being no shortage of participants, organising Britain’s first multiple kidney swap has been a logistical tour de force. Intensive planning has been required not simply in matching donors, but in ensuring surgeons and operating theatres are simultaneously available.

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