Kidney transplant surgeons from University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) have been helping to save lives in Jamaica at the start of a three-year project involving the Caribbean island.

The team of surgeons, kidney specialists, nurses and operating theatre technicians from the Trust gave up their spare time to travel to Jamaica with the Transplant Links charity (TLC).

It helps save lives by setting up kidney transplant programmes in countries that have the infrastructure but not the expertise to run them.

This was the first time a medical team has visited Jamaica to carry out live donor transplants where a healthy member of the family donates a kidney to a relative with chronic kidney failure.

It is now hoped that a sustainable national transplant centre can be established on the island if sufficient money can be raised over the next two to three years.

During the week-long visit in October 2012, the UHB team carried out three kidney transplants, involving a sister giving a kidney to her sister, a wife donating a kidney to her husband, and a sister giving a kidney to her brother.

All the patients are said to be making a good recovery.

The transplant team previously worked in Ghana, Nepal, Nigeria, Trinidad and Egypt but this was a first visit to Jamaica, where they found themselves based at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.

The UHB team consisted of: Mr Andrew Ready, Consultant Renal Transplant Surgeon and Medical Director of Transplant Links; fellow surgeon Mr Nick Inston; Consultant Nephrologist Professor Paul Cockwell; Nurses Paulette Williams-Jones and Laura Ludman; and theatre technicians Gordon Evans and Amanda Justice.

Mr Ready said: “The UHB team was there to perform the operations and teach the skills. It is the first step in a series of visits required to transfer skills. It is a complicated process but we are fortunate to have a highly skilled team here who were willing to give up their time to help.”

Dr Jennie Jewitt-Harris, Chief Executive of TLC, said a transplant gives patients the opportunity of a new lease of life away from a dialysis machine, which is often not available or inadequate.

She said: “Currently there is no transplant programme in the whole of Jamaica, so the goal is to have a sustainable national centre for the island. You can’t teach them what they need over three transplants, so we will be going back over the course of the next two to three years.

“We need to raise funds through TLC to continue to support their development.

“The UHB team has an international reputation as highly skilled clinicians who are generous with their time and knowledge. This was acknowledged in Jamaica by the Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson, who thanked them in person, and also by the British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Mr David Fitton, who individually thanked the team members.”

Mr Inston, Consultant Renal Transplant Surgeon at UHB, said: “It’s really rewarding to do this work. Without the TLC project these transplants could not have taken place. Seeing the immediate benefit to the patients and their families is something we often see in the UK, and is great to see for the first time in a brand new centre.”

Prof Cockwell commented: “It’s very humbling to work in countries where we can make a real difference to a large group of people through ongoing teaching. The goal is a sustainable transplant programme for Jamaica.”