Article Courtesy of News Diggers
By Peggy Mwansakilwa,
Last November, Wilcliff Sakala was told both his kidneys had failed. He never imagined that the woman he met on a dating site years earlier would one day give him a part of herself to keep him alive. His wife, Clara Mutale, donated one of her kidneys in a life-saving surgery at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH). Today, the couple is healthy and living their own version of “happily ever after.”
Wilcliff, a communication consultant, and Clara, a relationship officer at an insurance company, remember how everything changed after his diagnosis. He was placed on dialysis for more than six months before undergoing a successful transplant on 11th June 2025, in an operation led by a Zambian medical team with support from a visiting American professor.
In an interview with Diggers Life, the couple shared their journey, how Clara decided to become a donor, their emotional preparation, and the surprise of hospital staff and colleagues when they discovered she was the one giving her husband a kidney.
“We met around 2018 on a dating site. After connecting online, we agreed to meet for coffee at Radisson Blu Hotel. She tells me she was very nervous when she arrived, though I didn’t notice it. From there, our relationship grew, and we became involved, eventually getting married two years ago. So we’ve been friends since 2018, and it developed into something more and we got married,” Wilcliff shared.
And Clara says what has kept them close is their love for food and travel.
“Well, I think what has kept us together is that we’re both foodies, we love trying all kinds of food, whether street food or at a restaurant. We also enjoy traveling, and I think those shared interests have kept us close,” she said.
Wilcliff explains that his health troubles began more than a decade ago with high blood pressure.
“So, I think it was more than ten years ago that I started experiencing signs of hypertension, high blood pressure, fatigue, and constant thirst. During a routine hospital visit, my doctor noted that my BP was high. At first, I thought it was temporary. After another checkup, it was still high. By the third visit, we realised it was something I had to manage, so I started medication… Over time, the medication stopped working. That cycle kept repeating,” he recalls.
Last year, his condition worsened.
“Around last November, we had been visiting the same hospital near our home multiple times for the same issue. Every visit, I’d get more of the same medicine, but nothing worked. One day, my wife suggested, ‘Can we go somewhere else today?’ She mentioned a hospital in Kabulonga, and I agreed. That morning, I was feeling very bad. At the new hospital, the doctor reviewed my history and asked if I had ever done a kidney test. I hadn’t. He insisted on a full diagnosis… He saw how serious my condition was,” he revealed.
Soon after, a kidney specialist gave him devastating news.
“When she came back, he said, ‘Your kidneys have collapsed.’ I looked at him and said, ‘What?’ He replied, ‘They have stopped working.’ They did an X-ray and saw that your kidneys have shrunk, smaller than they should be. I asked, ‘So, what do we do?’ He said, ‘We have to start dialysis immediately.’ By that time, my wife had walked out of the ward, crying. I told her, ‘Okay, fine. Do whatever you have to do. I’m all yours.’ That’s how I started dialysis,” he narrated.
At first, dialysis seemed manageable, but it quickly became overwhelming, financially, physically, and emotionally.
“It cost around K5,000 per session, three times a week… We later found a center that accepted NHIMA at K3,000 per session. Still, it was tough. I felt okay for a few hours after each session, but I was still fatigued, vomiting, with swollen legs and aching feet. It clearly wasn’t working as well as it should,” he said.
“When I was going for dialysis, I would finish work at 17:00, get to the dialysis center by 18:00, and she had to be there. She would wait for four hours, sometimes just sitting in the car. By the time I was done, it was 22:00 or 23:00. We sometimes got home as late as midnight. It was very challenging for both of us, more for her”.
Eventually, doctors recommended a transplant. Tests showed his sister wasn’t compatible, but Clara was.
Wilcliff says UTH gave them confidence with clear communication and professionalism.
“UTH has a very excellent team of doctors and surgeons. People don’t know this. There’s a lot of expertise there… They took us through pre-counseling, explained everything clearly, and answered our questions. That helped us believe we were doing the right thing,” he said.
Clara remembers the moment it became real.
“On Tuesday, I was at home preparing his food when he called and said, ‘Surgery is tomorrow.’ My heart skipped a beat… I froze for a moment, but then I went back and started the pre-surgery process,” she recalls.
Asked why she donated, her answer was simple.
“It’s a bit of everything. Of course, I love him deeply, and I really felt that donating my kidney would be the right thing to do to save his life,” she said.
On the day of surgery, Clara went in first.
“So, I was the first one to go in. Wednesday, 10. They came to get me first because they have to harvest my kidney, then he has to go in second… For me, it’s like eight hours. I don’t remember anything because they put me under,” she said.
Two hours later, it was Wilcliff’s turn.
“Mine took four hours, hers took eight… At one point, I had to ask one of them, ‘Please, can you just keep quiet?’ There were student nurses too, so it was quite a commotion. I was disturbed, and since this was my first time, I wasn’t sure what would happen… I only woke up in my ward and was later told the surgery was successful,” he said.
For Clara, life after donation hasn’t changed much.
“Everybody were like, ‘Do you feel any different?’ I’m like, you people, first of all, do you feel your organs?… I don’t feel like only one kidney is functioning. Nothing much has changed. I’m just normal,” said Clara.
Wilcliff reflects on the irony of UTH being both a place of loss and a place of salvation.
“We lost a baby at UTH in 2021 and said, ‘Never again.’ So, for us, this was ironic. The same place where we lost a life became the place where my life was saved. Quite ironic,” he said.
He also wants to break the stigma around kidney transplants.
“Some think it’s a death sentence or that your life will be shortened, which isn’t true. You can live a healthy, productive life after donating or receiving a kidney. We need more Zambians to come forward and donate to relatives or friends to help save lives,” said Wilcliff.
