Mike waits for the call to transform his life (From Swindon Advertiser)

Mike waits for the call to transform his life

1:10pm Thursday 12th March 2009 in

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MIKE Powell relies on a machine to keep him alive.

Now he needs a donor to give him the new life he has waited eight years for.

The 59-year-old, of Westlecot Road, Old Town, desperately needs a kidney transplant after he was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome.

He currently attends the Great Western Hospital for four hours of dialysis, three times a week and, like many other patients, has been on the transplant waiting list for several years.

Mike’s symptoms started about eight years ago when he had swollen ankles, but this was put down to too much driving by a doctor. When it got worse and he became bloated he went to another doctor who suggested it could be a kidney problem who referred Mike to Oxford for tests.

Mike’s kidneys do not function properly, which results in water retention and that this water that should go into the kidneys instead goes through Mike’s body.

This diagnosis was a surprise to Mike because it is not in his family medical history.

“It came as a shock to me,” said Mike.

“Basically I was a fit person, I went to the doctor to get tablets and all of a sudden this.”

As Mike became more bloated he was adamant he did not want to go on dialysis and spent more than a year taking different drugs to try and tackle the condition.

“That was the worst time of my life,” he said.

“I didn’t like what dialysis was, I knew you would be hooked up to a machine.

“I think I was fighting the thought of dialysis and at the same time I wasn’t getting any better.”

Eventually Mike became so bloated he found it difficult to walk and felt so ill he had to be rushed to hospital for emergency dialysis where the dialysis machine removed 20 litres of fluid.

The condition has forced Mike to abandon his dream of becoming a graphic designer.

Now Mike has been on dialysis for nearly five years, and the transplant list for two because at first he was not well enough to have the operation.

Though he has been told it usually takes around two-and-a-half years to find a donor, he knows there are other people who he meets at the hospital who have been waiting nine years.

“You think why me, but you get through that and think there are other people worse off than me you learn,” he said.

“I try to live for each day and try not to moan about anything and appreciate every day I’m still alive.”

Mike explained that if an organ does become available the transplant team will call two or three patients, but only the one with the closest match will be chosen and he knows people who have experienced this.

“It’s my dream, something I just can’t wait for,” he said.

“I have been told in some cases I know one or two patients that had a transplant and the next day they have felt like a new person.

“I have been told for most people the phone goes off in the early hours of the morning “If the phone does ring at that time your heart starts pounding and you think this could be it.”