Model and actress Bijou Phillips is racing against the clock to find a new kidney with little success so far. Those close to Phillips, including friends and family members, have gone through the process of determining if they're a match and able to donate, but they were all incompatible with the 45-year-old, a source told US Weekly. There are no prospective donors right now, the insider said.
Right now, about 7,000 people are awaiting a kidney transplant in the UK. According to NHS figures, in 2024/25 only 3,302 adult kidney transplants were performed. The charity Kidney Research UK states that just 32% of patients receive a transplant within a year of joining the waiting list and six people die every week while waiting. People who experience kidney failure need either lifelong dialysis or a transplant to survive.
I urge California Sen. Alex Padilla to champion the bipartisan End Kidney Deaths Act (H.R. 2687). This bill represents a rare bipartisan and bicameral opportunity to save 100,000 lives and dramatically reduce taxpayer spending by $37 billion. I donated a kidney to a stranger at some personal risk and expense. The EKDA is a 10-year pilot program for refundable tax credits that will produce more donations for those who have been waiting the longest.
Michaela Morley, from Ballyglass, Co Mayo, was only six-years-old when she met O'Driscoll in her Temple Street hospital room in 2011. Hooked up to a kidney dialysis machine, she threw a ball into the Heineken Cup from her hospital bed and O'Driscoll cheered her on. It was a moment that gave a little girl reprieve from the seriousness of her condition and made national headlines.