Eight-year-old with first rejection-free kidney delighted at being able to swim again

An eight-year-old girl who has become the first person in the UK to receive a rejection-free kidney has spoken of her delight at being able to go swimming.

Aditi Shankar will not have to take life-long drugs to stop rejection after her immune system was “reprogrammed” with a stem cell transplant at Great Ormond Street.

Her body accepted a donor kidney as its own because the bone marrow transplant and kidney came from the same donor - Aditi’s mother.

“I got the kidney transplant when I went to special sleep and closed my eyes,” Aditi said.

“Now I have got the line out, I can go swimming.”