EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Lauren Ware’s life has been transformed after she was given the most precious gift possible – a new kidney.

Lauren, from Ryedale, needed nine hours of dialysis every night for more than two years after a rare condition caused her to suffer total kidney failure. And during the day, she always felt sick and extremely tired.

But then her parents Sarah and Mark got a phone call in January telling them to go straight to Leeds General Infirmary, where a suitable kidney had become available for transplant.

The four-and-a-half hour operation was a success, and now Lauren is a “bucketful of energy,” said Sarah.

The youngster loves tearing around on her scooter.

She is also looking forward to being able to swim and is planning to take part in the Transplant Games this summer.

Mark said the transplant had transformed Lauren’s health.

“The dialysis used to make her wake up through the night, which made her even more tired during the day,” he said.

“She was frequently ill and required occasional days off school. She also used to have no appetite but now she’ll eat pretty well anything.”

Sarah said the transplant had only been possible because the kidney of someone in their 40s, who had died after a brain haemorrhage, had been made available and was found to be a good match.

She spoke in support of The Press’s Lifesavers campaign of last year, which urged anyone who was not yet on the organ donor register to consider doing so now. The more people who joined the register, the more patients would benefit in future in the same way as Lauren.

She also called for the Government to change from the current system, under which people have to opt to go on the register, to one where people would have to opt out if they had an objection.

Lauren suffered from a condition called focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), which is scarring within the kidney.

A home from home LAUREN’S parents said the three weeks she spent at Leeds General Infirmary after undergoing the transplant were made massively easier for them because they were able to stay each night at Eckersley House. The building, situated near the hospital, provides accommodation for the parents of children being treated there.

Mark said he and Sarah would take it in turns to sleep there each night, with the other parent spending the night in a bed next to Lauren.

Sarah said: “It was fantastic. It was somewhere you could leave your stuff and go for a shower. The alternative would have been a drive home of more than an hour each night and then back again the next day.”

The accommodation is funded by the Sick Children’s Trust, and Lauren’s aunts, Kat and Evie, and her uncle Lewis, all musicians, have now decided to raise money for it by performing concerts.

They are set to perform about 15 songs this evening at the Bay Horse in Terrington and also aim to record a CD, which will be sold when available at No 1 Health & Beauty in Malton and at Eckersley House.

To join the Organ Donor Register or get more information, phone 0300 1232323, visit organdonation.nhs.uk or text SAVE to 84118

York Press: The Press - Comment

This is why we should sign up

LAUREN Ware is just like any other eight-year-old.

She loves tearing around on her scooter, is looking forward to starting swimming and will eat “pretty well anything”, according to her mum Sarah. In fact, she is, in her mum’s words, a “bucketful of energy.”

And that’s a bit of a miracle. Because until receiving a new kidney in a major, four-and-a-half hour operation earlier this year, Lauren was not much like other little girls at all.

A rare condition had caused her to suffer total kidney failure. She needed nine hours of dialysis every single night – and still felt ill and tired during the day. She had no appetite, was often unwell, and sometimes needed to take days off school.

It was no way for a little girl to have to live.

Now, after receiving the kidney of someone in their 40s who died of a brain haemorrhage, her life has been transformed.

It is precisely because signing up to organ donation has such power to transform lives that we launched our Lifesavers campaign last year.

The aim was to get as many people as possible to sign up to the national organ donor register.

None of us want to think about the fact that we are going to die.

But signing up to the register costs us nothing. And if the worst comes to the worst, at least one day our loved ones might have the comfort of knowing that we were able to make a final gift of life and hope to someone like Lauren.

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