2:25pm Thursday 8th January 2009
By Debbie Waite
YOUNG mum Jasmine Parker has just celebrated her most happy and healthy Christmas ever, thanks to the selfless sacrifice of a complete stranger.
Doctors discovered Miss Parker’s kidneys were failing after a routine pregnancy scan three years ago. They told her that without treatment she could die by the time she was 21.
She suffered renal failure when her son Leo was just over a year old and went on to kidney dialysis. But in February this year, the 18-year-old received the news she had been praying for – that a donor kidney had become available. Following a six-and-half-hour transplant at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital’s Transplant Centre, Miss Parker is now fit and well and leading life to the full.
She and two-year-old Leo have just enjoyed a Christmas together, free of thrice-weekly dialysis sessions and she has finally been able to enjoy a feast of tasty, festive treats, which were previously out of bounds. She said: “I ate roast potatoes, chocolates, cream, all the things I couldn’t eat when I was on dialysis, but best of all I got to spend all of Christmas, uninterrupted with my little boy. It was brilliant.”
Before her transplant, Miss Parker relied on family to drive her on the three-times-a-week, 56-mile round trip from Banbury to the Churchill for dialysis. Each three-hour session cleaned her blood and kept her alive. But it also meant long periods away from her son. She said: “It was tough for everyone, but I had no choice if I wanted to live. I was on the transplant waiting list for six months – I had been told I could wait for a lot longer, so I was thrilled when a kidney became available. To know that a stranger had chosen to donate their organs after their death, and that it was going to transform my life was the best gift ever.”
Ms Parker endured a tense time in early December when her new kidney started to give her problems. She said: “I went into the Churchill a few weeks ago and the doctors performed a biopsy and found one half of the kidney was rejecting. But emergency steroids thankfully stabilised the new organ and now everything is great.
“Last Christmas Eve I was wired up to a dialysis machine in Oxford – this year I was able to rush around and get things ready and have fun, whereas before I would get tired easily.
“Now Leo and I are really looking forward to a happy and healthy 2009.”
l Why not take a few moments to sign the UK Transplant Organ Donor Register form at www.uktransplant.
org.uk or telephone 0845 60 60 400.
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