Christofias doing well after kidney transplant

AKEL Secretary general Demetris Christofias was said to be making a good recovery yesterday following a kidney transplant in London.

During the day, all the island’s political parties issued statements wishing a speedy recovery to the communist party leader.

Christofias and his sister Despina, who donated her kidney for the transplant, were admitted to London’s St. Mary’s hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

Christofias was accompanied to the UK by his wife Elsi, his personal physician cardiologist Dr Michaelis Minas and kidney expert Dr Alkis Pierides.

Both doctors travelled on their own expenses.

Christofias, 52, underwent a successful open heart operation in March in preparation for the transplant, again at St. Mary’s hospital.

The transplant was deemed necessary after Christofias suffered kidney damage during treatment for bronchial pneumonia.

He spent a month in hospital in Cyprus over December 1998 and January this year after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.