Transplant pair can now look forward

Transplant pair can now look forward

30 December 2008

A DUNDEE family is looking forward to a healthy New Year after being given the ultimate gifts—from a loved one and a complete stranger, writes Marjory Inglis, health reporter.

Shelagh Fyans will never know who gave her back her independence, allowing her to enjoy life with her two little grandchildren and her wider family, free from the need to visit Ninewells Hospital in the city several times a week.

She and her son Steven have both suffered from kidney failure and spent years making the trek to the Ninewells renal unit several times a week where life- saving machines took over the job of cleansing their blood.

At the beginning of the year Steven’s young wife Suzanne took the brave decision to go through major surgery and donate one of her healthy kidneys to her husband.

At the time his mum Shelagh took on the responsibility of coping with their two children to allow the couple to recover. On top of that she had to find time to fit in her own trips to Ninewells for dialysis.

When Steven and Suzanne’s story was made public, nobody mentioned Shelagh’s own situation, though her son and daughter-in-law were effusive in their praise of her contribution to their recovery.

But Shelagh was waiting for the phone call that would change her life, relying on someone she would never meet donating a kidney that would be a suitable match for her.

That call came in the early hours of October 10 and sent Shelagh and her husband Fred on a life-altering journey through to Edinburgh where a surgical team was standing by with a suitable cadaver kidney.

Now, fully recovered and having just spent a dialysis-free family Christmas for the first time in years, Shelagh is mindful that another family was missing someone they loved, the person whose death made the Fyans family’s happy Christmas possible.

“I do think about it,” said Shelagh. “Not all the time. You just can’t.

“But I do think you have to get on with your life because you owe it to that donor.

“You owe some kind of debt to get on with your life, enjoy your life.

“That’s what the donor family did it for, to give you a better life.”

Now 54, Shelagh has been a kidney patient since she was just 17.

There is no link between Shelagh’s kidney problems and her son’s disease, just a quirk of fate and inordinately bad luck.

“There is no reason for it, no underlying illness, just unlucky,” said Shelagh.

The doting grandmother doesn’t dwell on the matter and her positive attitude to life doesn’t give in to self pity.

“If we had something serious wrong with our heart or liver, we would be dead by now.

“I have had this disease since I was 17 and I am still going. I think we are really lucky and that is the way I prefer to see things.”

Shelagh has been enjoying the festive period with daughter Kerry (31), son Greg (27), Steven, Suzanne and the two grandchildren Kasey and Gabrielle.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2008/12/30/newsstory12441287t0.asp