Well, it was three years this August since my double lung transplant and I’m feeling fit and well after a year which has been slightly fraught with complications that I hadn’t fully anticipated.

Let me explain…. For two years after my transplant I was fit as a fiddle, beyond all my expectations.  I had been travelling to some amazing places including, Barbados, Egypt, Paris, Prague, Dublin and Spain but really I hadn’t scratched the surface of the many places I was planning to see and things I was going to do.

After returning from Egypt in September 2004 the swelling I had been having in my legs and feet over the past few months was noticeably worse.  My blood tests had been showing that my kidney function was deteriorating and when I went for more blood tests after Egypt they showed a marked deterioration, enough so that I was referred to Addenbrookes renal team.  My initial consultations with them were quite optimistic, it looked like there was a problem but it shouldn’t realistically impact on my life for a while yet.

However, the blood tests kept getting worse and at Christmas time I was feeling terrible. I spent most of Christmas and New Year in Addenbrookes scared at how unwell and swollen I was, the rest of the time I was laid up on the sofa at home.  I couldn’t believe how unwell I felt and it reminded me so sorely of the dozens of Christmases I’d spent ill in the past, I couldn’t believe I was this sick again.

The doctors decided the only place to go from here was kidney dialysis which I started in January. The result of all the toxic drugs I had needed as a CF patient and the drugs I was taking as a transplant patient had lead to kidney failure. It is not common but unfortunately it is also not uncommon in CF patents that go on to have a transplant.

Before I knew it my life revolved around hospital again, going back and fourth twice a week initially for dialysis which increased to three weekly as I needed it more often.

I was feeling too poorly initially to focus on how quickly my quality of life had deteriorated but when I did start to think about things my focus was on how I could get my life back on track.  It looked more and more like the answer was going to be a kidney transplant yet I could hardly comprehend that I was going to need another transplant waiting possibly years on the list.  The idea of receiving another organ made me feel quite uneasy too however this is when my dad stepped in.

It’s not like I really had much of a choice, he had been researching living related donor operations and was extremely keen to embark on the tests to see if he was the right match to donate one of his kidneys to me and see his daughter living the healthy life that had been snatched away from her again.

I spoke to a friend who had been through the same thing with his dad.  His kidneys failed after a transplant and the procedure had gone well.

So we set out down the living related kidney transplant line.  My fears were for my Dad but having looked at the statistics I was encouraged and for him it only seemed natural. All these years my parents had watched me in hospital and not really been able to do anything and now my dad could.

All the tests proved we were a compatible match and after many comprehensive tests and a few months down the line, a date was set for the kidney transplant.  On the 23rd of August this year, after 8 months of dialysis my Dad donated me his right kidney.  Within a day I felt so well. I hadn’t realised how unwell I was feeling on the dialysis.  Within a week I was home and only a few weeks after I was pretty much back to the picture of health I had been before all the kidney troubles.  Because I was able to benefit from a related transplant my body is far less likely to reject it, it’s a Sparke kidney, DNA wise, it’s just that bit older than me and brings a new meaning to ‘keeping it in the family’!

Now we are 7 months down the line, post kidney and (touch wood) I’m feeling fab.  I finished my degree and should graduate soon.  I've just come back from a month travelling in South America which was incredible and if all goes to plan this September I will carry on travelling the world with my friend Sarah.

I ended my previous story with thanks to my friends and family for being there, now that takes on an extra dimension.

Thank you Dad, because of you I’m living my life and enjoying every bit of it.

From the bottom of your/my kidney

Thanks