Watch: Transplanted kidney 'functioning well', relieved Bartolo says

Being told that a kidney he donated to a stranger was functioning well was like being told that he had “just had a child”, Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo told this newspaper yesterday. On Wednesday, the former Mosta mayor donated one of his kidneys in what has been described as a “noble and altruistic” gesture. His trip to hospital started two years ago during house visits, when Mr Bartolo, who fears “anything to do with hospitals” met the mother of a police superintendent in need of a kidney donor. He immediately set off on a mission to look for a prospective donor, but months later decided to put his fears aside, and sign up for the donation himself. It transpired that the two were not a match, but the MP decided to go ahead and donate a kidney to another person, no matter who it may be. “When the surgery was done, and I was told that the kidney is functioning well, it felt like they had told me I had just had a baby. I cannot describe the sense of happiness that I felt at that moment. It was too beautiful to describe,” he said, recalling the experience. Mr Bartolo has not tried to gain mileage from the experience and actually tried to keep the donation low-key. When a friend...