Eight days after my name was placed on Spain’s kidney transplant waiting list, my phone rang. A kidney had become available. Could I come to Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia immediately?
I had imagined months or years of waiting. Suddenly there was no time to think. Somewhere, a stranger had died and, amid another family’s grief, I had been offered the possibility of continuing to live.
I didn’t think I’d ever need to call upon this service. In 2019, I left London and moved to Valencia to work as a freelance writer. I spoke schoolboy Spanish and had always loved my visits to Spain. And I found the Spanish warm, friendly and sunny by disposition.
Fat Bear Week has a winner and his story will melt your icy heart
The final of the competition, which asks viewers of live feeds to name the bear that has put on the most weight in Alaska, came down to a battle of the nepo-bears, and the victor triumphed over adversity.
What is Fat Bear Week?
The competition is run by Katmai National Park and Reserve in Alaska, one of the most chilly and remote (yet deliciously salmon-rich) places on Earth. There were 2,200 brown bears up for the title. Among them was Chunk (or Bear 32, they all have numbers), who weighed in at an estimated 1,200lbs (544kg) to take the 2025 crown.
Top two contenders
After a week of voting, it came down to a battle of the sexes. Representing the ladies: Bear 910. Born in 2016, she is the daughter of former Fat Bear Week champion, Beadnose.
In the men’s corner: Bear 89. His name is “Backpack”, because in his first year as a cub (pictured), back in 2006, he would often climb onto the back of his mum, also a former winner, when she swam in the river.
A hard start in life
Naturalist Mike Fitz, the creator of Fat Bear Week, said the winning bear “knew hardship at an early age”. He got a bad injury as a cub, which made him vulnerable as he struggled to keep up with his mother.
Backpack won by 103,344 votes to 98,253.
2 min read
Three things to know as economy grows by 0.5%
The economy has grown by slightly more than initially expected, as figures for growth from April to June this year increased from 0.4 per cent to 0.5 per cent by the Office for National Statistics.
Industries performing well
- The boost came from the services sector growing 0.6 per cent.
- The construction industry also grew by 0.8 per cent.
6 min read
Last year revised down
Growth for 2025 as a whole was a little lower than previously estimated.
Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics, explained that the figures initially given for last year were too high.
Growth for 2025 was revised from 1.3 per cent to 1.2 per cent.
What’s driving growth?
The average UK household’s disposable income increased by 1 per cent, contributing to economic growth overall.
The rise was down to increased income from benefits, which at £5.3bn outstripped the increase in salaries at £2.8bn. The annual increase of state pensions and working age benefits in April contributed to this jump.
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What we know as three teenagers die after car plunges into River Wear
Three people have died and a 17-year-old arrested after a car plunged into a river in Sunderland.
Car broke through barrier
- A black Audi A3 smashed through a roadside barrier at 1.30pm on Tuesday near Wearmouth Bridge
- Two boys and a girl were killed
- A 17-year-old who was in the car has been arrested
2 min read
Surviving boy arrested
The boy who reached safety has subsequently been arrested in connection with the incident. He remains in police custody at this time. He is currently in hospital with what have been described as non-serious injuries.”
NOrthumbria police spokesperson
Energy bills to soar by 16% in January – what it means for your money
The typical household bill is set to jump by £276 in January, according to an industry forecaster, with others warning of a “second energy crisis” on the horizon.
Second price rise predicted in the New Year
Bills are set to go up tomorrow by 4 per cent in line with the energy regulator Ofgem’s price cap increase. Energy consultancy firm, Cornwall Insights, has warned the next price cap increase in January could be even more, bringing a typical annual bill to £1,999.
3 min read
Government promises ‘breathing space’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the this morning that rising energy costs were “very difficult indeed”, and the Government would be looking at “any measure that can give people breathing space”.
This came as the CEO of energy supplier EDF, Simone Rossi, warned the UK is “walking into a second energy crisis”.
Bleak winter ahead
“I’m doing what I can, removing say VAT off bills. But it is very difficult indeed, and it’s why the Middle East situation needs to command a lot of our attention.”
Andy Burnham
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The weekly exercises that ‘can reduce blood pressure’
A new study suggests taking part in certain strength training exercises just once a week could have benefits for blood pressure.
What the study tells us
- Experts at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent looked at adults with “normal” or “high normal” blood pressure.
After the first four weeks, everyone who took part in exercise saw a reduction in their blood pressure.
And after the eight-week study period researchers found that people who continued to exercise three times a week saw the most benefit.
The training compromised of four bouts of isometric wall-squat exercise, separated by two minutes of seated rest.
The significance of the findings
People who perform isometric exercise training, which involves holding a pose for a few minutes such as a plank or a squat, at least three times a week may see further benefits, researchers found.
Emily McGrath, senior cardiac nurse at British Heart Foundation, said: “The results of this study show that even low levels of training can lead to significant health benefits.”
After 15 million viewers tuned in for last year’s nail-biting finale, Traitors fever is set to hit the country once more.
What you need to know
- The second series of will begin on Thursday 1 October.
- It will air on BBC One and iPlayer, with episodes going out at 8pm.
- There will be 10 episodes in total, airing on Thursdays and Fridays.
- This means the finale will go out on Friday 30 October – just in time for Halloween.
2 min read
What to expect
Claudia Winkleman will return to present, wrangling a star-studded line up including comedian Romesh Ranganathan, actor Richard E. Grant and presenter Maya Jama.
The cast has stayed tight-lipped about the dramatic events in the castle. Anticipation abounds.
6 min read
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Three-year-olds can clock ‘more than 18,500 steps a day’
A study by researchers around the world analysed data from 3,570 three and four-year-olds from 44 countries.
The story in numbers
30,000
The most active youngsters took nearly 30,000 steps each day.
However, there is “substantial variation” in totals based on gender, geography and socioeconomic factors, researchers said.
1,124
The lowest daily average recorded across a three-day period was 1,124 for the least active toddler.
The median number of steps was 18,542.
Some of the key learnings
Boys take more steps
Boys tended to take more steps than girls. For four-year-olds, this was an average of 1,000 more each day.
Socio-eonomic factors
Children in low to middle-income countries and those living in rural areas took more steps.
Regional variation
The study also found “considerable variation” within regions, e.g. step counts varied by 14,000 in Europe.
What does this mean?
Researchers said the findings “highlight the importance of considering socioeconomic, environmental and geographical contexts when interpreting physical activity levels in young children”.
They added the easily measurable metric of step count could be used to inform public health messages.
4 min read
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
But in July 2024, I became unwell. I suddenly had very high blood pressure. I became convinced that I was having a stroke and went to hospital. My blood pressure had risen above 200, but the scans revealed a different disaster: my kidneys were failing rapidly. 20 years before, I had been diagnosed with glomerulonephritis – a congenital condition causing damage to the tiny filters inside your kidneys- by the NHS. But it had never caused me any issues; the trail went cold and was never followed up upon. That could not happen in Spain, where you have a unique ID card, regardless of address.
In Valencia, I was hospitalised for two weeks and put on various drips to stabilise me. There were no other symptoms except my raised blood pressure, which is why kidney failure can sometimes be a silent killer.
That diagnosis began 15 months of operations, appointments and, eventually, dialysis. Three mornings a week, an ambulance collected me at about 7am and took me to hospital, where I spent four hours connected to a machine that cleaned my blood.
I was told I needed a new kidney urgently, and in October 2025, was formally admitted to the transplant waiting list. Mine was exceptionally short even by Spanish standards – a donor kidney was found within a week and I was booked for surgery.
The operation took several hours, and it was not without complications.
At first the new kidney produced more than two litres of urine a day — an output I regarded with the enthusiasm other men reserve for football results. Then tests showed that my body was rejecting it. I was readmitted and underwent plasmapheresis, a process that filters harmful antibodies from the blood. I spent weeks in isolation while the team fought to save the organ. They succeeded.
Now my life is relatively normal. I return to the hospital every month for blood and urine tests and take a cocktail of antirejection drugs three times a day. I have been told to expect to need another transplant within eight years, but at the age of 59 my life is recognisably my own once again, with no restrictions on my activities of which I am aware.
All this happened within Spain’s tax-funded National Health System. It is not automatically free to everyone in the country: entitlement depends on circumstances such as residence, employment, pension status, or reciprocal arrangements. As a covered resident, however, I received consultations, emergency treatment, dialysis, surgery and weeks in hospital without a bill at the bedside. Like many patients, I make a contribution towards prescription costs.
It’s fair to say that if I’d gone through this life-altering event in the UK, my experience would have been entirely different.
Spain leads the world in deceased organ donation. Its transplant success is sometimes credited simply to its opt-out law, under which adults are presumed willing to donate. Britain now has a similar system, introduced 2015, yet the results are still different. In Spain, a national authority coordinates the system, while specially trained hospital teams identify potential donors early.
In 2025, Spain carried out more than 6,300 organ transplants, including almost 4,000 kidney transplants, and recorded 52 deceased donors per million people. This has meant it has led the world in deceased organ donation for 34 consecutive years.
By contrast, NHS Blood and Transplant reports that over 8,600 people are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in the UK, while deceased organ donation rates have faced recent declines. In a typical recent year, around 1,400 to 1,500 deceased donors provide the gift of life, but nine people die every week as a result of waiting too long for an organ. In Spain, that number is 50 per year.
My care in Spain felt more intimate than care I have received in the NHS. I remain in contact with doctors and nurses, address them by their first names and count some as friends. When I told my consultant how frightening it had been to face kidney failure alone in a foreign country, he rejected the premise. “Nonsense,” he said. “You speak our language, the nurses adore you and you have become one of us.”
Silvia, one of the nurses, later wrote: “We know your blood family is far away. But you have become part of our family. We love you, and I love you.” Another nurse, Ángel, has become a close friend whose wise counsel I still seek. This warmth did not replace clinical excellence; it accompanied it. They knew my fears, my jokes and my habit of using one to conceal the other.
I never learned the identity of my donor, nor the circumstances of their death. I know only that my life now contains a debt I cannot repay. Every morning and evening I take anti-rejection drugs to persuade my immune system to tolerate this stranger’s kidney.
Spain gave me a donated organ and then fought to save it when my body tried to destroy it. When illness found me, far from my blood family, Spain’s sanidad pública gave me another family — and made sure I did not face it alone.
Eugene Costello’s collected essays, written during his kidney treatment, are published as ‘Or The Bull Kills You: Life and Death in Valencia’ (£9.99,