A businessman, waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant, is urging more people to sign up to the organ donor register.
Married father-of-one Andrew Ackroyd is one of 93 adults in Bradford waiting for a kidney transplant.
The 43-year-old was in his early 20s when his kidneys started failing.
He was diagnosed with glomerulonephritis.
“Things deteriorated steadily then on about three occasions it took a big decline,” he said.
“The last one, towards the end of 2008 saw my kidney function drop to 17 per cent and when it dropped to ten per cent I went on to dialysis.”
Mr Ackroyd, who lives with his wife Zoe and 11-year-old son George, started home dialysis in 2009 and it sees him hooked up to a machine through the night.
“It affects the whole family and life revolves around it,” he said.
“It is not a cure, it is a treatment and they say you can keep going on dialysis for ten years without adverse effects. The key is looking after yourself and following a regime.”
When it became clear he needed a kidney transplant, not only did his wife and parents undergo testing to see if they could be living donors, two friends also came forward to offer a kidney.
He decided to decline the offer from his mother, and his friends and wife were not a match.
His father was a match, however a scan revealed multiple arteries going through the kidney, making an operation impossible. He is now left waiting for a call to say a donor kidney is available for him.
“The average wait is between three and six years,” said Mr Ackroyd.
“The call could come at any time, out of the blue but I just put if out of my mind and try to carry on as normal. I try not to think ‘why me?’ “There are a lot of things I would like to do but can’t,” he said.
“I used to enjoy camping. A new kidney would mean freedom.”
- To join the organ donor register go to organdonation.nhs.uk or phone 0300 123 23 23.
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