A YOUNG man faces a desperate fight for life, after suffering double kidney failure at the age of only 24.

Ashley Parker, from Acomb, York, fears he may never see his 30s if he does not get the vital transplant.

"I'll die unless I get a kidney," said Ashley, a former pub manager, who has had to give up work because of his illness.

"I'm a 24-year-old who's worked hard all his life, whose kidneys have died for no reason.

"I've had the best treatment so far, but I'll go down unless I get a donor. If I don't get a kidney, I might not reach my 30s."

Ashley's shocking story began last November when he began to feel poorly.

He saw his doctor who gave him a blood test to diagnose what was wrong.

It was then he was given the appalling news - he was suffering from end-stage kidney failure, despite never before showing any signs of illness.

Ashley had to be rushed into hospital for emergency surgery so a dialysis machine could be fitted.

He was so ill that he could not be given a general anaesthetic because it would have been dangerous.

As a result, he underwent the whole procedure under a local anaesthetic.

For months afterwards, he was extremely poorly, as his weakened body was targeted by several different infections.

Now he has to be given dialysis every night while he is asleep.

He is desperately waiting for a match to be found so he can be given a new kidney.

But he has suffered a further blow, after discovering his blood group is rare, which will make it harder to find a match. No one in his family has yet been found to be able to give him the kidney he urgently needs.

Now the plucky 24-year-old has taken his future into his own hands, by launching a personal appeal for a kidney fund, which he hopes will, if needed, pay for him to find a kidney donor privately or abroad.

A group of relatives and friends are jumping 15,000 feet from a plane on May 13 to kick-start the appeal.

Ashley said the money might not be needed if a donor could be found on the NHS, but he was making arrangements to go abroad if that was his last chance of survival.

York Hospital nursing director Mike Proctor said it was not in Ashley's best interests to have a transplant abroad.

He said: "We've advised him very strongly not to seek or try and get a transplant abroad.

"We think there are risks related to that."

None of Ashley's infections had been picked up in hospital, he said.

If you would like to help Ashley or sponsor the plane jump, you can email him on ashbarpub@yahoo.co.uk.