Daniel's story

Daniel had a living kidney transplant from his mum when he suffered end stage kidney failure, and he shares his story. 

"People should consider themselves to be lifesavers if they are organ donors, and that's how I think of my mum now."

"I started to notice general symptoms, not really much energy, always wanting to sleep, my appetite was quite poor. But I always put it down to lock-down at the time and being a teenager, sitting inside and I thought I was being quite lazy!

I started to get a bad pain in my side so we eventually went to A&E, and then when they ran blood tests I found out it was end stage kidney failure. 

The doctor said the options were dialysis, there was a possibility dialysis would kick-start my system again. It improved my health slightly but it wasn't enough to make my kidneys work again. After a couple of days they said it needed to be a transplant. 

A few people had applied to be a donor, but it was my mum who, when they had done some bloods, was a perfect match. 

You are brought in the day before.  My mum went down first that then they brought me. Mum was in hospital for 2 days and she found the whole process really good. 

It has transformed my life. It's made me change my outlook on what I want to do in life. 

People should consider themselves to be lifesavers if they are organ donors, and that's how I think of my mum now. If she wasn't there, I don't know how ill I might have got.