Transplant Trauma The Aunt Who Saved My Life​​​​​​​

Bradley’s unexpected saviour arrived just in time.

- Hayley McLarin

As far as impromptu gestures go, it was pretty huge. Close families exchange gifts, but Sandra Whipp cannot even begin to think how to repay her sister-in-law Christine for saving her son Bradley’s life by donating a kidney.

“It’s just so humbling to think someone would do that for you, especially when they have their own children,” says Sandra. “She literally gave us another chance to be a proper family again.”

Sandra and her husband Brendon – Christine’s brother – are resilient, and have faced more life-changing news than most. They didn’t know Bradley, their first child, had Down syndrome when he was born.

“We had a couple of hours of normality, then we felt like our world had crumbled,” says the 51-year-old Dunedin teacher.

At the age of seven, Bradley was also diagnosed with Coeliac disease.

“Again, we thought, ‘Okay, it is what it is, what can we do to make this life better?’”

When, at age 12, Bradley started losing his appetite and wasn’t even interested in ice cream, his parents sought medical advice. Tests brought up no concerns but Bradley’s weight plummeted, so back to the doctor they went.