“Celebrating 50 years with my transplanted kidney”
In 1970, at just 10 years old, Mike started to experience signs of kidney disease and was shortly diagnosed after ending up in hospital.
“In my last year of junior school, I started to have symptoms like discoloured urine, back pain, rashes, and swollen ankles. I was in and out of hospital for several months while doctors tried to identify what was wrong.
"In 1971, I began to have problems breathing and was in bad shape. I was stabilised in hospital and told I needed dialysis because my kidneys had failed, due to a type of kidney disease called glomerulonephritis. It was shocking for me and my family, and hard to get our heads around.”
Now, aged 63, he celebrated his 50th kidneyversary at the same hospital he received his kidney transplant in 1974.
“It was a fantastic afternoon, although a bit emotional to reflect on how the transplant has positively changed the course of my life over all these years. When I first received the kidney, having it function for 20 years would have been a complete dream, even five years would have been good!
“It’s a surreal feeling to have reached 50 years. The transplant has allowed me to get married, have children, a grandchild, and live a perfectly normal life. I’ve travelled, lived abroad, studied, and had a super career with a large global IT company.”
Find out more about Mike’s story here:
bit.ly/3yMDXYf
ALT A 70's photograph of Mike in a hospital bed connected to dialysis machines.
ALT A 70's photograph of Mike receiving dialysis treatment, with visible machinery and tubes connected to their arm filtering blood, in a hospital setting.
ALT Mike surrounded by friends, family, and staff from the hospital he received his transplant from. They are in a hall with gold balloons in the shape of '50' blown up behind them.
ALT Two elderly individuals seated, holding up a newspaper titled 'Evening Press'. The newspaper's visible headline reads, "Kidney flown from France for York boy".