Yahoo News Manchester United star Andy Cole's life-changing second chance that brought him to tears
Wiping tears from his face, a former Manchester United star spoke of a sacrifice that can so often happen without fanfare – but is a vital second chance at life for those who find themselves urgently needing it.
“Maybe if you came to me five years ago, I would have said something totally different. But for me the past two years has changed so much. This illness knocked me off my feet,” admitted Andy Cole, the ex-Manchester United striker, back in a candid interview in 2018.
"I found it really difficult to cope, after being as fit as I was. There is no hell like it."
The former England international was opening up about a devastating mystery virus he contracted on return from a trip to Vietnam in 2015. The illness was so catastrophic he was left needing a kidney transplant – and desperate for help.
Now, seven years after miraculously finding a match for a transplant in his nephew, Andy is fronting a new initiative to encourage more people to consider living kidney donation. It comes as a new poll reveals just 16 per cent of adults in the north west would consider donating a kidney to a stranger, despite 81 per cent of them believing you can change someone’s life even if you’ve never met them.
Back in 2018, Andy shared the personal story of how he owes his sister’s son a ‘lifelong debt’ after a terrifying brush with death. The former footballer had struggled with the strange illness for two years before his nephew, Alexander Palmer, was found to be the perfect match for a transplant in 2017 as Andy was suffering kidney failure.
During the emotional interview, Andy said: “My family all rallied round to offer to be donors, my sisters and nephews, and that meant I had a donor quickly.
“Alexander said to me: ‘Uncle I will do it. I cannot see you in this pain any more’. I knew it is not going to be easy. He was 27 at the time, young, fit, the perfect match. But it was still a dilemma. I was thinking ‘what if it does not work, I have put him through all this pain, and he has risked all this for me?’
“Thankfully, it was a very good match, and he made a full recovery. But I know that others in need are not so lucky, and wait years for a donor.”
As a footballer, Cole had few equals. The third top scorer in Premier League history with 187 goals (just one penalty), he destroyed defences on the way to five Premier League titles, two FA cups and a treble under Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
But when he fell ill with a rare kidney condition, he faced the toughest fight of his life at 43.
Now, Andy is backing a new campaign to encourage more people to consider becoming a living kidney donor, as national statistics show more than 5,500 people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant in the UK, and six people die each week whilst waiting.
“It's important to raise more awareness of living kidney donation so that kidney patients and potential donors can have more open conversations about it and potentially save the lives of others like me in the future,” Andy has said of the Make Your Mark campaign, launched by the charities Kidney Research UK and Give a Kidney.
The dad-of-two recalled: “I’m a very stubborn individual. I went through the process of trying to convince myself I was not ill. It was two years before I went through the transplant, I was on medication to see if they could bring the kidney back.
In 2018, Andy said: “I had six or seven months in denial, but by the second year, my function went down to seven per cent. The consultant said ‘You cannot keep going like this.’ My days had become consumed by sleeping. When we went in for the operation, we were in one room, Alex was a few steps away. I remembering thinking about what he was doing for me.
“I will be indebted to him for the rest of my life.
“I had been on dialysis and it was horrible, you are in for hours, you come out you are so tired afterwards, and I had to do it every other day.
“I was adamant I could get through it. But I faced a constant struggle.”
When he first went into Manchester Royal Infirmary at 2015, the consultant asked: “How did you get here? Did you drive?”
Andy recalled: “I knew exactly what he meant. I had pushed and pushed and pushed until my body could not go on. I was still so fit for my age, I had got through when Joe Public would have been struggling.
They said to me ‘you are going to have to stay in hospital, you cannot go home’. I said ‘I can’t stay, I’ve got things to do’. I was in denial.”
He paid tribute to his wife Shirley, who forced him to seek medical attention, and his children Devante, a professional footballer for Barnsley, and Faith, whose love helped him through. “You don’t think of yourself, you think of your family, your kids,” he said. “Alex’s noble act saved me. We chatted about it all before the op, on holiday in Dubai. I have six sisters, and my nephews, who all offered to help me.
“Imagine being the parent of a six or seven-year-old who needs a transplant and there is no match. I understand now what that means.”
Nottingham-born Andy, whose condition was diagnosed as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, added during the 2018 interview: “Transplant is a life changing experience for a lot of people.
“Organ donation transforms lives. It is torture for you, torment for you as an individual in need.
“I found it really difficult to cope with. Even after I came out after the transplant, I felt guilty seeing Alexander struggling.”
Once his nephew recovered, however, he was ‘buzzing’ about his gift of a new life for his uncle. But he warned: “If this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.”
Worldwide, kidney diseases are the tenth most common cause of death and the number of people developing kidney disease in the UK is growing rapidly, driven by risk factors including increased cases of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity, alongside social and economic inequalities.
A report released by Kidney Research UK in 2023 warned that cases of kidney disease and kidney failure were growing so rapidly that the NHS could be overwhelmed in just ten years’ time. The report also revealed that increasing the numbers of transplants from living donors would not only save lives but would also save the NHS money compared to expensive and life-limiting dialysis treatment.
To find out more about becoming a living kidney donor please visit
