She was read her last rites, before a stranger's gift gave her 52 more years

Thursday, 11 June 2026

When Minja Ivelja was in her mid-20s and living in Melbourne her kidneys failed. At one point, she slipped into a coma and a Catholic priest read her last rites.

She held to life, and on January 2, 1974 received a kidney, donated by an 18-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash.

That kidney was still going strong after 52 years when she died last month from sepsis and following a bad infection. Her family say her story is an example of how organ donation can save and extend lives.

Kidneys transplanted from a deceased donor typically last 15 to 20 years. Last month Aucklander Minja Ivelja died at the age of 79, with a kidney donated to her 52 years earlier still going strong. Nicholas Jones reports on that extraordinary gift.

Minja Ivelja died peacefully at North Shore Hospital last month at the age of 79, having lived a full life, most of which was gifted to her by a total stranger.

When Ivelja was in her mid-20s and living in Melbourne her kidneys failed. At one point, she slipped into a coma and a Catholic priest read her last rites.

She held to life, and on January 2 1974 received a kidney, donated by an 18-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash.

According to the United Kingdom’s NHS, transplanted kidneys from a deceased person on average last about 15 to 20 years.

Hers was still going strong after 52 years when she died last month, from sepsis and following a bad infection.

Contact the reporter: nicholas.jones@stuffdigital.co.nz

Ivelja’s family believe that is likely an Australasian record, and their matriarch may have been the longest surviving kidney recipient from an unrelated or deceased donor in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world.

Dr Jafar Ahmed, transplant nephrologist at Auckland City Hospital, says that while he isn’t sure about world records, her case “was definitely exceptional” and “almost certainly a New Zealand record”, given about 50% of kidneys from deceased donors would be working at 13-14 years.

Organ Donation NZ has hailed her story as a “powerful reminder of the profound impact organ donation can have not only on individuals, but whole families and communities over generations”.

Her daughter, Sandra Ivelja, agrees.

“It is incredible. She would have been dead. This boy gave her an additional 52 years of life.

“She has nursed her husband in his passing, she’s watched her grandsons grow up to become fine young men, we have travelled so much - we have been to New York, Hawaii - we have done stuff she would never have done, if this young man didn’t donate his kidney to her.”

Minja Ivelja was born in the Serbian part of the former Yugoslavia, and her husband Lawrence was from Lastavo, Croatia.

She, Lawrence and Sandra - then aged 18 months - moved to Melbourne in 1969 as refugees, and borrowed money to taxi from the airport to their new home.

When she had the six and a half hour operation on January 2 1974 such surgery was still relatively new - the Royal Melbourne Hospital had done its first only seven years earlier (the first kidney transplant in New Zealand took place in 1965).

She’d never had an operation, and was scared, but remembered her husband saying to her, “Darling, it cannot be worse. It has to be better.”

After the surgery she became stronger, and started her own clothing company - ML (Minja and Lawrence) Fashions.

In 2006 Lawrence was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the couple moved to Auckland to be close to Sandra and their grandchildren. He died two years later​.

Ivelja lived with Sandra, son-in-law Owen and their children on the North Shore.

“I said at the funeral, ‘I’ve lived with mum for two thirds of my life.’ I keep walking past her room waiting for her to hobble out of there like a little penguin - she walked like a little penguin - and order me to make her a coffee and toast,” says Sandra, 59.

“We just have to get used to our new normal. She was a huge character. She was a force of nature. She has been an amazing, incredible lady.”

Ivelja wrote in broken English, and her contributions to shopping lists became part of family folklore, including “smok semen” (smoked salmon) and “coc” (coke).

“Sometimes she couldn’t read her own writing, and would say to me, ‘Doesn’t matter, we get it next week,’” Sandra recalls.

After her death the family had specially-printed “Minja’s shopping list” tea towels printed, with the best entries and concluding, “Rest in Peas”, which she once wrote in a condolence book.

The family want to thank the medical teams who cared for Ivelja, including her long-time nephrologist Dr Helen Pilmore​.

Each May, they attended the annual transplant thanksgiving service at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland’s Parnell, where Ivelja provided inspiration and hope to other transplant recipients and their families.

In January 2024 the family marked 50 years since her transplant by speaking to Stuff, partly in the hope the family of her donor might see the story and know what his gift provided.

They hadn’t had any contact on that front, Sandra says, but their expressions of gratitude remained just as true.

“We had a beautiful life,” Ivelja reflected at the time. “I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

“We had everything – I mean, we didn’t have millions and millions of dollars, but we had each other… we had what we needed. That’s the most important thing.”

Organ donation can be either from a living donor (restricted to kidneys or part of a liver) or deceased donor. The latter is possible only when a person is on a ventilator in one of 24 intensive care units across the country, usually with a devastating brain injury.

In 2024 there were 37,722 deaths in New Zealand. Of these, 1.6% were in a situation where donation may be considered. New Zealand’s deceased donor rate is stalled below comparable countries including Australia.

About 500 people are waiting for an organ at any one time, about three-quarters of whom need a kidney. Some have been on the wait list for well over 10 years. Unmet need is difficult to measure, but around a third of people put on the waiting list for a kidney won’t receive one.

“Over the past five years, around two-thirds of the more than 900 kidneys generously donated have been via deceased donation, making this a critical pathway to meeting Aotearoa’s kidney transplant needs,” said Sue Garland, team leader donor coordinator at Organ Donation NZ.

“Anyone can play a role in supporting organ and tissue donation by learning and talking more about it. The most impactful thing people can do is talk about organ donation with their whānau, share their wishes, and ask what their loved ones would want, too.

“In New Zealand, families are asked to make the final decision about donation following death, and knowing what a loved one wanted can make that decision easier and more meaningful at what is an incredibly difficult time.”

Health Minister Simeon Brown has received advice from officials on increasing organ donations, “including on the development of a strategic plan”, but nothing has been announced.

Sandra says she hopes part of her mum’s legacy will be to encourage others to let family know they want to be an organ donor. Ivelja expressed her own view in the 2024 interview with Stuff.

“We are born like dust, we go like dust,” she said. “If you don’t need it any more, give it to somebody who does.”