“ When I went to university, I got all A’s. The first year, I was top of the whole session. I never had any disease at all. I was the best at that time. In that particular year when I graduated, I was the best. Number one. And I went into medicine number one.”

“ In Khartoum, Tijani and I used to go out on almost all our adventures together.”

“ On that visit, we went almost everywhere where we had gone before, to every park, along the bank of the Nile, the different night clubs that we had visited during our honeymoon. It was very beautiful.

You were very much in love with her then?

Yes, of course. I still am. I still am.”

“ I was bestowed my final fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, got the Hallet prize and was granted the diploma of Doctor of Surgery on May 2nd 1968”

“ Son, I am not a medical man, I don’t know science, but I believe in God. I am certain of one thing. That I have been good to all people all my life. I have raised you quite well and I don’t think that God would harm me in you. I believe strongly that somehow you will pull out of this.”

“ He came during the night, without even sending a telegram saying when he is coming. He had never been to London before, but that didn’t stop him from just popping in unannounced.”

“ Don’t worry, another brother will come, and after that another brother. Just think of us brothers all lined up in a row.”

“ And partly it was a special way we had of getting along. We were shepherds together, you know, we took the goats to the pastures, many times we had to do the shopping together. This early experience of having been raised together probably created in us a special feeling, a bond.”

“ It was on a Friday morning, May 23rd - exactly one month from the day of my transplant - that Sara was scheduled to arrive from the Sudan with Osman’s wife, Safia, and their two daughters.”

“ That was one of my weak days, I just couldn’t hold back my emotions. I was holding her and pressing her to me, just standing there and well it was just one of my weak days”

“ So all I know is that if Osman had been allowed to give me his kidney, I'm sure he would have done so. He and I have never discussed this issue since then except for him to say, I wish, Omer, I could have done it.”

“ I was leading a normal life again with Nagat and Sara. We bought a new car. We visited many places. I should say that life at this time began to acquire a new meaning. I began to enjoy everything more. I began to spend more and more time with Nagat and Sara.”

“ His belief that his own experience as a kidney patient would contribute to his understanding and work with other renal patients has been successfully borne out by the remarks of many of these patients.”

“ As he told me the other day, the longest a man with a transplanted kidney has lived up to now is 16 years. Also this fact does not faze him; all it does is make him rush a little more for time, so he can accomplish what he calls “something truly worthwhile” before he must die one last time.”