My extra years with transplant dad

Lisa Horton

October 13, 2005

The daughter of a kidney transplant survivor spoke today of the extra 32 years she had with her father thanks to the kindness of an organ donor.

Annmarie Hayek, 54, said without the transplant her father John White would never have been able to see his grandchildren grow up or enjoy his trout and carp fishing to the full.

Mr White was diagnosed with a progressive kidney disease when he was in his late 30s. It meant he was condemned to make weekly trips for dialysis treatment at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire, and his health was rapidly deteriorating.

Both his kidneys were failing and his only chance of survival was a transplant. At the age of 40 he was offered a new life after a perfect donor match was found and a life-saving transplant operation was carried out.

His daughter and wife, Norma, 75, know that the memories they have of Mr White, an electrician, are all thanks to the person who took the decision to say yes to being an organ donor.

Today they joined a campaign by Kidney Research UK to encourage people to become organ donors and raise awareness of the lives blighted by kidney disease.

Mrs Hayek, of Rowington Road, Norwich, who is married to Ziad, 61, a support worker for the fire service, said: "I was in my 20s and I was scared I would loose my dad. I knew that he would die because of his kidney problems so a transplant was his only chance. It was terrible for him too because his quality of life was very poor. He was not able to live at home and he had to be hooked up to a machine for dialysis once a week. He felt very ill all the time and had terrible headaches and cramps. We were over the moon after the operation, the change in him was just amazing.

"I have one son, Tareq, and my brother Duncan had Ryan and James. My dad was so happy to be a grandfather to the three of them and the extra time meant he could watch his grand children grow up. I lived in the Middle East in Jordan for a while and he was able to come over and visit me without any problems. Before, he was barely able to come home from the hospital.

"I'm so happy to have had him around all these extra years. It meant the world to his whole family and all his friends."

Mrs White, who lives in the home she shared with her husband in Beccles, said her husband's second chance for life was 'absolutely wonderful'.

She said: "He died of heart problems in 2002 at the age of 71 but the kidney kept going to the last. In the extra years we had him he watched his three grand children grow up which really meant a lot to him. He loved trout and carp fishing, that was his delight in life.

"We all knew that he was given life because some one else had died and I think that really made him live his life to the full.

"Some people are reluctant to become donors but it changed our lives; " things would have been very different without him."

According to new figures from Kidney Research UK, one in 10 people suffer some degree of Chronic Kidney Disease and may not even be aware of their condition. Around 34,000 people are currently being treated for renal failure, a number that is rising by 8 per cent annually.

The only treatments currently available for renal failure are dialysis, where a patient is tied to a machine for several hours a day and several days a week, or transplantation, for which there is a huge shortage of available donors.

To find out more, log on to www.kidneyresearchuk.org or call 0845 070 7601.

To join the NHS organ donor register log on to www.uktransplant.org.uk.

Copyright © 2005 Archant Regional.

This article posted October 29, 2005.