{"id":344277,"date":"2026-03-13T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/344277\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:45:14","slug":"journalist-donates-kidney-to-girl-16-after-mother-appeals-to-local-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/344277\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist donates kidney to girl (16) after mother appeals to local newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maya Solecki was in need of a transplant after suffering severe damage to her kidneys following an e-coli infection in January 2024\n<\/p>\n

Maria Solecki, of Hadleigh, Essex, said her 16-year-old daughter Maya Solecki was in need of a transplant after suffering severe damage to her kidneys following an e-coli infection in January 2024.<\/p>\n

The 48-year-old, an executive assistant for a local charity, said she was tested herself and found not to be a suitable donor for her daughter, as were other family members and Facebook contacts.<\/p>\n

She said she took the decision to take her appeal to her local newspaper, the Echo, in March 2025 and that in a \u201cvery unexpected twist\u201d, the journalist she contacted turned out to be a match.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/p>\n

Maya Solecki relishing the opportunity to dine out again following a period of restricted diet and fluid intake while on dialysis (Family handout\/ PA)<\/p>\n

The transplant operation went ahead in January this year and Ms Solecki said she hopes the journalist, 51-year-old Emma Palmer, \u201cremains part of Maya\u2019s life forever\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maya described Ms Palmer as \u201cmy hero\u201d and added: \u201cI keep telling her I wish there was a bigger phrase than thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got the call (saying there was a donor match) it just didn\u2019t feel real,\u201d said Maya.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I was on my last bit of will power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager said she will \u201calways have a chronic condition\u201d but that \u201cwith this treatment, I do feel better, I feel amazing, I feel the best I\u2019ve felt since I initially got ill\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Solecki said she was told that, after contacting her local newspaper, around 20 people came forward for testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not privy to anybody who was testing at all,\u201d said Ms Solecki.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime went on and we sort of waited and Maya was becoming more and more ill and struggling to cope on dialysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until November at the end of last year that Emma\u2019s identity was finally revealed once she passed all of the health checks and everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine my reaction. I was incredulous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not believe that of all the people we tested, it was actually the journalist who I first made contact with that proved to be a good match and had the operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described it as \u201creally bonkers\u201d and a \u201cvery unexpected twist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/p>\n

Maya Solecki celebrating her last session of dialysis before the kidney transplant operation. (Family handout\/ PA)<\/p>\n

The operation went ahead nine weeks ago, and Ms Solecki said while \u201cthere\u2019s still quite a lot of recovery to do\u201d, her daughter\u2019s life is \u201ccertainly 100% better\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a parent there are simply no words of gratitude that are enough for somebody who altruistically comes forward to save the life of your child, a child they don\u2019t even know,\u201d said Ms Solecki.<\/p>\n

Ms Palmer, writing in the Echo, said she decided to get tested to see if she was a match after she learned \u2013 in an update after the Echo carried an initial appeal \u2013 that no one had yet been found.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/p>\n

Maya Solecki, 16, alongside Echo journalist Emma Palmer, 51 (Maria Solecki\/PA)<\/p>\n

News in 90 seconds – March 13 <\/p>\n

Asked why she decided to give a kidney, she said: \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had 50 good years and am blessed with a wonderful and healthy family.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think that a 15-year-old girl \u2013 as she was at the time \u2013 was having to go through so much and giving up hope just really got to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that she has met Maya and her mother twice and \u201cI feel like we are family already\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaya gave me the longest hug I think I\u2019ve ever had in my life when I went to see them and they bought me a wonderful necklace with the date of the operation engraved on it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Solecki said the wait for a donor kidney can be more than three years long and there are some 150 children waiting for a kidney<\/p>\n

\u201cThe call to action is for anyone who might want to donate to a child or a young person, please don\u2019t hesitate and get somebody else off dialysis and give them a chance at a normal life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maya Solecki was in need of a transplant after suffering severe damage to her kidneys following an e-coli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,898,43,60422,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-344277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-news","tag-news-in-90-seconds","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}