Tat’ll do nicely! Maria Thompson
Everybody loves beanie, the official mascot for Kidney Research UK.
You’ll see him at events, on our web pages and even in the most unlikely places such as rafting down the Zambezi river – (a group of supporters took a Beanie soft toy on their epic fundraiser.)
But you may be surprised to here he has now been immortalized on the shoulder of kidney transplant patient.
Corby based Stuart McIsaac loved the look of him so much he decided to have him inked on his shoulder in memory of his brother-in-law and to mark the kidney transplant he made possible.
Stuart said: “I had the tattoo done a year after my transplant operation. I asked my consultant if it was okay and he laughed! But it was something I really wanted to do.
“When I saw Beanie I knew that’s what I wanted the tattoo to be. When I asked the tattooist to do it he looked at me as if to say; ‘are you sure?’ Anyway I did it and I love it, I call him Kidley and he’s on my shoulder.”
And he added: “David Duncan, my brother-in-law was amazing, I never asked or expected him to be my donor, but he visited me one day while I was having dialysis and said he wanted to.
“We went to Leicester to listen to Professor Mike Nicolson give a speech about transplantation and we had our bloods done while we were there. Unbelievably we were a match, it was better than winning the lottery. I will always be grateful to him.”
The family were not to know how selfless David’s act would be, as he was very sadly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years later and passed away just 11 weeks after that diagnoses.
Stuart said: “We are now loyal supporters of Kidney Research UK and Pancreatic Cancer UK.”