Running News Daily

Dialysis nurse Rachel Cox is training for the London Marathon after donating a kidney to a stranger

A mother of two is training for the London Marathon and raising money for kidney disease research after she went under the knife two years ago and donated her organ to a complete stranger.

Rachel Cox, 48, a nurse on the renal unit at Crosshouse Hospital in Scotland, said she was moved to help after watching her patients suffer the harsh side effects of dialysis.

“A life on hemodialysis is not easy and it’s not really a choice,” she said. “It’s something is every day and I wanted to do something to make at least one person’s life better. You can only give your kidney once."

Cox said her family thought she was “crazy,” but that it was a “personal choice and not something anyone should feel pressure to do.”

Cox had to undergo a psychological evaluation to ensure that she was donating for the right reasons, and said she wasn’t public about her decision at the time because she didn’t want to pressure any other nurses in her field.