Musician Fiona Lee Maynard saves husband’s life with kidney donation

Fiona Lee Maynard couldn’t sit back as her husband edged closer to death while waiting for a kidney donor – and her actions saved him. WATCH THE VIDEO

For Fiona Lee Maynard, donating her left kidney to save her husband’s life was a “no-brainer”. More than that, it restored her “faith in life”.

The singer-songwriter’s beloved husband and fellow musician, James Lomas, had been diagnosed with rare auto-immune disease Goodpasture’s Syndrome two and a half years earlier at age 49.

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The condition – which affects one in two million people – had destroyed his kidney function, forced him to endure dialysis, blood transfusions and bucketloads of medications, and landed him on the waitlist for a transplant.

When no deceased kidney donors emerged and Lomas continued to deteriorate before her and their daughter Juanita’s eyes, Maynard volunteered herself as a live donor.

Fiona Lee Maynard (left) and husband James Lomas (right) with fellow The Oz Transplants band members Little G and Paulie Stewart, and transplant surgeon professor Bob Jones. Picture: Jason Edwards

“James was reluctant to accept an organ from a loved one – we had this idea that were just organs waiting (for people who needed them),” she said. “We were so naive. We learned there’s a real shortage.

“So I investigated, through DonateLife pamphlets, the possibility of being a living donor. I was able to persuade him by telling him the potential risks to me would be less than the potential risks of him staying on dialysis.

“The scary thing for me was being rejected as (not a match). Everything had to line up, and it did. It restores your faith in life.”

Lomas in hospital the night after he received a lifesaving kidney transplant.

Maynard three days after donating her kidney. She said she was “so happy to have had the treatment happen and see James looking better already”.

Lomas said the transplant had got him “almost back to 100 per cent”.

“I got better really quickly, it was truly amazing,” he said. “(Fiona) saved my life.”

Maynard fondly recalls being reunited with the love of her life in hospital post-transplant and seeing his rapid improvement.

“It wasn’t quite a Hollywood moment, because we were in quite a lot pain – it wasn’t like we ran into each other’s arms,” she laughed. “But I looked in his eyes and I could see already he was clearer and brighter.”

Maynard and Lomas on their wedding day, 1998.

Maynard and Lomas in hospital two days after she gave him her kidney. Maynard said: “Juanita, our daughter. took this photo of us, the first time we saw each other after surgery”.

While Lomas was already registered to be an organ donor, the experience prompted Maynard to do the same – and she urged all Australians aged 16-plus to follow her lead.

“It is such a gift,” she said of organ donation. “Seven people can benefit from one deceased organ donor, and that snowballs into the other people who benefit – their families, children, friends.

“And in the case of James, he is an exceptional guitarist. He couldn’t play music for two and a half years, bring that joy to other people.”

The couple has since joined The Oz Transplants – a band formed by liver recipient Paulie Stewart, formerly of rock group Painters and Dockers, out of his gratitude towards the stranger whose selfless donation saved his life.

Another member is kidney recipient Georgina Chrisanthopoulos, aka Little G, who is back on the waitlist needing a second kidney transplant.

How to register as an organ donor.

The band will play a free gig, “Raising the roof for organ donation”, at St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall to kick off DonateLife Week on July 28 – the day after Maynard and Lomas’s one-year transplant anniversary.