6:09am Tuesday 25th March 2008
By Claire Lomax
A brave and selfless daughter is going under the surgeon's knife in an attempt to save her father's life.
Claire Joseph, 30, is donating a kidney to her 58-year-old dad, Peter Joseph, who is currently being kept alive by kidney dialysis three times a week at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford.
Mr Joseph's kidneys began to fail three years ago and he was placed on the transplant list.
But a suitable organ has not been found and so Claire approached her father with the amazing offer of one of her own kidneys.
Medical tests revealed she was a perfect living donor and on Friday, April 4, surgeons at St James's Hospital in Leeds will use keyhole surgery to remove her left kidney and transplant it in to her dad.
Rosemary Joseph, 62, who has been married to Peter for 35 years and is mum to their two daughters, Claire and Louise Joseph, 29, said it was a decision that had not been taken lightly.
"We did not ask Claire to do this and when she offered I told her she didn't have to do it," said Mrs Joseph. "My husband had tears in his eyes. I think he is happy but also very worried for her."
Mr Joseph had always been fit and healthy until he began to suffer from high blood pressure, which doctors were unable to lower. High blood pressure is known to damage kidneys and doctors realised Mr Joseph's kidneys were not working as they should, and gradually they failed.
Despite being placed on dialysis three years ago, Mr Joseph has continued to work as a foundry worker for Terrill Bros foundry in Hammerton Street, Bradford.
"Some people would just give up, but he has been really wonderful and amazing," said Mrs Joseph. "But some days he gets really bad and the dialysis makes him sick. He has to go for four hours, three times a week and he is getting fed up of going now."
Mrs Joseph said she would have happily given her husband a kidney but he was from the West Indies while she had an English mother and an African father and unfortunately her rare blood group meant it was not possible.
Claire and her two sons, 11-year-old Ethan Pemberton and six-year-old Enrique Escoffrey, recently moved to live with her parents in Runswick Street, Bankfoot, Bradford, to make life easier after the operation.
It means the boys get to see more of the granddad they adore.
Claire, who runs the baby room at Footsteps Nursery in the Woodroyd Children's Centre, said: "I decided to do this because I have two boys and I just want their granddad to be around for them, particularly the youngest.
"I think it could be a long process waiting for him to get a kidney from the transplant list, because it is hard to match with us because of our ethnic group.
"It has been a year of tests and it has always been in my head that the operation would happen at some point but the date has come up quickly. I am nervous because I have never been poorly or in hospital apart from with my appendix when I was young.
"The operation takes place on a Friday and I might be able to go home on the Monday or the Tuesday and it could be two months before I go back to work."
Mrs Joseph said: "Claire is doing something wonderful and she is helping others by making sure someone else can have Peter's place on the transplant list.
"I am so proud of her. Every time I think about it, I just think how brave she is."
e-mail: claire.lomax@telegraphandargus.co.uk
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk