Six-year wait for call that will bring my life back to normal
Last updated 20:04, Thursday, 06 November 2008
A GREAT Broughton man, who has spent six years waiting for a kidney transplant, has joined the call for people to sign up to the organ donation register.
Anthony Graham, of Derwent Park, spends every night hooked up to a dialysis machine and must take more than 20 tablets a day.
The 43-year-old is on the list for a transplant at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital.
He is waiting for a phone call to tell him that a suitable donor kidney is available.
Mr Graham has carried out his own dialysis at home for the last four years after attending a course that taught him to do it at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.
He undergoes peritoneal dialysis, which means that blood is purified inside his body. His abdomen is filled with dialysis fluid through a catheter, and this cleans the blood in the way that is normally done by the kidneys.
He said: “I went to see my specialist because the peritonea can only last so long before it starts to decay.
“The specialist told me that I could really do with the kidney now.
“It is an everyday treatment. I do an hour to an hour-and-a-half at teatime and about seven hours every night.”
His kidney problems stem from an accident more than 15 years ago. Mr Graham was a cable engineer, working underground in Keswick, when he was electrocuted.
This led to two heart attacks and renal failure, resulting in the need for dialysis and a kidney transplant.
The dialysis has left him more prone to illness and has also affected his energy level and appetite.
He said: “With this procedure you are prone to peritonitis and it is painful. I have had it four times in six years.
“I also get tired. I sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon and I can be asleep for 10 to 11 hours in a night.
“I am a diabetic as well so I have got to watch my diet. Sometimes I have a good appetite and the next week it is rubbish.
“I can lose half a stone in two days and through a night I can drain off up to three litres of fluid.”
Mr Graham said he was initially fearful when he was told that he needed a transplant, but after such a long time on the waiting list his views have changed.
“Before the accident I was 18 stone and could take on the world and when I first suffered renal failure, I was scared to have a transplant.
“But over the years you are forced into it, because you are poorly and there is no normality in your life.
“You just wait, but when you are attached to your machine you feel as though you are a dog on a lead.”
Mr Graham is in favour of a government proposal to change to an opt-out system, so people will have to explicitly state that they do not want their organs to be removed after their death.
He said: “I may be biased, but I would definitely support that.
“I would absolutely encourage anyone who is thinking of donating their organs, but I know it must be hard if it is a loved one and I would not like to be in that situation.”
- To find out more about organ donation, call the NHS organ donor line on 0845 60 60 400, text the word GIVE to 84118 or log on to www.uktransplant.org.uk
Registration forms are available at the Times & Star offices in Oxford Street, Workington or can be downloaded by clicking here
