After much preparation, a London, Ont. man has travelled to Oxford, England to donate one of his kidneys to his adult son, Robert.
“It means a lot because it’s between me and him,” Robert Pont told CTV London from England. “It’s going to make our bond stronger.”
Robert, who has long struggled with kidney failure, saw his condition worsen this year. Doctors recently told him that he would need a kidney transplant.
“It’s more fatigue than anything else,” the father of two said, describing his illness. “I get tired quicker.”
That will hopefully change very soon. Today, both Robert and his father Simon went under the knife.
“This is going to make a big difference,” Simon Pont told CTV London after arriving in England. “His kids know that. They talk to him and say, ‘Whoa! When you’re better, Dad, you’ll be able to come down to the park with us!’ And that’s going to be amazing, to know that he’s going to be re-energized.”
Leading up to today’s surgery, the pair had a busy week of preparations in Oxford.
“We had to have blood tests, we had to have chest x-rays, ECGs -- just making sure that we’re still okay, still fit and healthy,” Simon said.
Prior to these tests, there were also a series of steps that Simon had to take here in Canada with the help of the transplant team at the London Health Sciences Centre, which worked hand-in-hand with the team at Robert’s hospital in England.
“Both teams have just worked so hard with this single purpose,” Simon said. “And it didn’t seem to matter that we were in two different countries.”
Both father and son will be in hospital for over a week recovering -- and both hope their story inspires others to be organ donors.
“Whether it’s here, whether it’s in Canada, you’re doing someone a great big justice by giving them a chance to have their life back,” Robert said.
“If I had one message to give,” Simon added, “it’s go and do something amazing. Make a difference to someone’s life.”
With a report from CTV London’s Celine Moreau
