Presenter Sabet Choudhury donated kidney to save mother

A BBC Points West presenter has said he felt he had to donate a kidney to his mother because of a shortage of deceased Asian donors.

Sabet Choudhury was told his mother Sakina could have only three years to live, after her kidneys failed.

He said he had "little choice" but to donate a kidney, as she could have been waiting 10 years for a transplant.

The operation was a success but he said the wait for other ethnic minority families could be "long and fatal".

According to the NHS, transplants are more likely to be successful if the donor is of a similar ethnic background.

Sabet said he and his mother had always been close and it was hard to see her deteriorate

But in the UK only 3.5% of people from ethnic minorities are on the Organ Donor Register, while more than a third of those awaiting a transplant are from ethnic minorities.

Sabet, 41, said he was worried his mother, who is 70 and of Bangladeshi origin, would face a 10-year-wait for a transplant, which might come too late.

She fell ill at Christmas 2013 and Sabet said it had been hard to watch his mother having to be hooked up to a dialysis machine, three times a week with a "pretty poor quality of life".

"You don't want to see that happen in front of your eyes, that quickly, knowing you can do something about it," he said.

At the beginning of 2014 he began the process to be a living donor, with tests at Southmead Hospital, Bristol.

He was cleared for the transplant and the operation took place in November last year.

Sabet's mother is now doing well and looks "almost 10 years younger", he said.

Sabet's story is being broadcast in Transplants and Trafficking on BBC 1 in the West at 1900 BST on Thursday 30 July and will be available on BBC iPlayer.