This weekend marks the thirteenth year of my Kidney Transplant. This was me at one of my earliest dialysis sessions - you can see the dialysis machine is connected through Tesio lines through my chest - before the fistula was created in my arm.

I was connected to that machine for 4hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for nearly 4 years cleaning my blood as my kidneys weren’t able to. Fluid restriction (~1litre per day), tiredness and no appetite were the hardest part of kidney failure for me but I made some good friends whilst on dialysis and continued working throughout (albeit not very efficiently). I couldn’t have been more happy when my 3rd call for a transplant was confirmed as a match and it continues to serve me very well at about 30% efficiency.

Thankyou seems too small a word for such a generous gesture as an organ donation. The system is now opt-out in England, which I’m not a supporter of; I prefer to think of it as a generous gift, rather than Government-led. However, with more than 4000 people currently waiting for a transplant please make sure your family knows your wish, should the worst happen.