“I’m Just an Average Person, No Amazing Talents, No Special Abilities, Just a Motive to Help”

In July 2012, Sam Nagy of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, had an operation to remove one of his kidneys so it could be transplanted into a complete stranger. Mr. Nagy is a 20-year-old banking administrator, the youngest altruistic organ donor in Great Britain. Some people thought that he was too young to make such an important decision, but he said, “By the time I had done all the research … I thought, ‘I am quite mature for my age, what difference is a few years going to make?’ If there are people on the waiting list who are in quite a bad way … what is the reason for waiting a few years?” His mother, Karen, was worried about the operation. She said, “I’m extremely proud of him, but part of me thinks, ‘At what point in your life as a young man do you wake up and think that this is what you want to do?’” Mr. Nagy has a blog titled “Altruistic Donation, My Journey to Save A Life,” on which he wrote, “I’m just an average person, no amazing talents, no special abilities, just a motive to help.”