Lisa's healthy life '“ all thanks to mum

Lisa Blundell is back at her Hawthorn Road home after a kidney transplant, in spite of her chances of success being rated at just 50-50 before the transplant.

She said: "I'm still a bit sore and swollen and I can't do much at the moment. But everything is going well.

"It will be about 12 weeks after the operation before I'm fully recovered. I'm really looking forward to being able to have a holiday with my husband, Tim, and son.

"It will be nice to get back to something like a normal life rather than having dialysis three times a week.

"I've not been able to plan things because of the dialysis and it's going to be good to have more energy and not feel rough all the time."

Lisa received the kidney from her mum, Aldwick resident Jan Bowers (63). She is also well on the way to a full recovery.

"I feel OK," she said, "though it's a bit frustrating I can't do everything I would want to at the moment.

"But it was no decision at all to donate a kidney to Lisa once we found out that I was the closest match."

Lisa (35) began to suffer problems with deteriorating kidneys in 2000. She was living in Sunbury-on-Thames at the time and began dialysis at Charing Cross Hospital in central London.

Her condition improved after a year and she no longer needed dialysis.

She was keen to start a family and her consultant told her the pregnancy was likely to go well, but there was a risk her kidneys would worsen afterwards.

That occurred after her son, Joshua, who is now three, was born and Lisa needed to restart dialysis again last summer.

She initially went to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, having moved to Bognor seven years ago, before a place became available at the dialysis unit at Bognor Regis War Memorial Hospital.

This meant Lisa, who has been unable to work for some time because of her ill health, was within walking distance of the lengthy sessions instead of an ambulance journey away.

Her hopes of a transplant rested with a troublesome antibody within her body being overcome. That meant it took two years before her consultant at QA Hospital was confident enough to sanction the transplant.

That period had seen most of Lisa's blood having to be sent to Germany for cross-matching because of the antibody.

"I was told there was only a 50:50 chance my new kidney would work," said Lisa. "The last person who had a transplant with similar problems with their antibody had their kidney fail after just five days."

Because of the antibody problem, a lot of the preparation for Lisa's operation '“ such as having immuno-suppressants and blood plasma '“ took place in advance of her transplant.

The dual operations took place at QA on July 29. Jan's operation took about 90 minutes and her kidney was placed in Lisa straight afterwards in a further two-hour session in an operating theatre.

Part-time care assistant Jan was discharged six days later to her bungalow in Rochester Way.

Lisa was allowed back home after ten days. Both of them return to QA for regular check-ups and they praised the hospital's staff as well as urging everyone to become organ donors.

Lisa added: "Without this operation, I would have been on dialysis for the rest of my life.

"That is improving all the time, but it doesn't last for ever. It also took up three days out of every week for me."

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