Most people will only donate a kidney after their death and some step up to help someone they love but very few people are willing to give one away to a complete stranger.
Joe Walsh, a 26-year-old father-of-one from Bramley, however, is one of those people.
"It came out of the blue," he said. "I was doing the washing up one day in 2017 and I heard about it on the radio. It struck me as a really interesting idea.
"I'd never heard that you could give a kidney to a stranger before, so I'd never thought about it.
"My decision was an outworking of my Christian faith. Having experienced the love of God, I wanted to share that in the way I live my life.
"Obviously there's a lot to consider, but I did my research and considered the pros and cons.
"The operation is quite low risk and I would need to take time off work to recover, but on the other hand, through the kidney sharing scheme it could enable two or three life-changing or life-saving operations.
"I would also be saving the NHS over £200,000 per operation."
Keeping someone on a dialysis costs the NHS around £290,000 over 10 years, but the cost of a kidney transplant, the follow up-appointments and drugs that stop the recipient's body from rejecting the new organ is around £100,000.
After thorough physical and psychological evaluations, Joe went under the knife in Spring 2019 at St James's University Hospital.
"I was totally peaceful throughout the process, from start to finish," he said. "I have a lot of faith in the NHS and when I read about the risks of the operation being low, I absorbed that and took it onboard.
"Perhaps God was helping me aswell. I think it would be natural to have the instinctual fear of an operation like this, but actually I was totally at peace, even the day before the operation.
"It was my wife who was much more stressed about it, I was very calm."
Joe's donation transformed the lives of two complete strangers and one of them later wrote to him after the operation to express her gratitude.
He said: "In her letter, she told me about how she can now live her life normally again, play with her grandchildren, go on holiday and do normal things.
"That was really nice to hear and she said she thanked God for the kidney.
"I wrote back and said it was a really positive experience for me and I'm really glad that her and her family can have a normal life.
"It's incredibly difficult for people living on dialysis without functioning kidneys. Some people described it as being a half life. They're often very tired and spending a lot of time in hospital."
The long wait isn't just inconvenient, it can be fatal.
There are around 6,000 people on the UK Transplant Waiting List and last year, over 400 died while waiting for a kidney.
Joe's decision to become a living donor was incredibly selfless, but many saw it as strange.
"I haven't met many people who have understood my decision and been enthusiastic about it," he said. "It's not a normal thing to do and I'd like to see it become more normal.
"People think it's a bit of a crazy thing to do and historically the NHS have been a bit apprehensive about this kind of donation.
"But attitudes have really changed and now almost 1,000 people have given a kidney to a stranger, since it became legal in the UK.
"One kidney has twice the function you need, so today I can't tell any difference. It affects different people in different ways and some people don't recover so well, but by in large it doesn't affect donors much.
"One kidney is all you need and that's why the hospital allow you to go ahead with it.
"Once they asses you and find your health is really good, they know the kidney they leave you with will usually last you for the rest of your life."
He added: "At this current time, with the coronairus, there is a growing sense of community and people are seeing the importance of looking out for each other.
"But with our NHS under extreme pressure as well, giving a kidney is one way you can relieve that pressure, by helping to remove two or three people from the waiting list and saving them hundreds of thousands of pounds."
Joe is now urging people to follow in his footsteps and sign up to become a living donor so they can change someone's life.
Bob Wiggins, chairman of the charity Give a Kidney, said: "We're encouraging everyone to consider if you could share your spare.
"Many people still don't know that any healthy adult can volunteer as a living donor and more than 800 people in the UK have now donated one of their healthy kidneys to a stranger, changing hundreds of lives for the better.
"Not only that, but someone stepping forward to donate in this way can potentially trigger up to three transplants, so kidneys from donors like Joe are incredibly valuable."
To find out more visit giveakidney.org
