Transplant joy for couple

For four years Shropshire woman Sylvia Folwell had to endure kidney dialysis which left her drained of energy. Now, thanks to a transplant, the 63-year-old has been given a new lease of life.

Mrs Folwell is recovering at her Market Drayton home after the major operation at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

She is getting used to life without daily dialysis, which she had been forced to undergo since developing Adult Polycystic Kidney Disease.

Now Mrs Folwell and her husband Peter, of Berrisford Close, are urging more people to join the organ donor register and help save lives.

Prior to the transplant last month, Mrs Folwell had been on the waiting list for a kidney for four years and had to endure dialysis every evening, which left her with no energy.

Now her body has accepted her new kidney, and the couple say the transplant has given them a better quality of life.

Mr Folwell, 58, who runs Drayton Consultants, said the couple were shopping in Shrewsbury on April 24 when they received a telephone call telling them a kidney donor had been found.

Less than 24 hours later Mrs Folwell had undergone the five-hour operation.

Mr Folwell said he and his wife were eternally grateful to the donor and their family, and were now looking forward to spending more quality time together as a couple.

He said: "There are some patients who unfortunately need a kidney transplant to live, but for us it is entirely about quality of life.

"We don't know where the kidney came from, but we will write a letter of thanks that will be passed on to the relatives because I think they like to know that organ donation has worked and benefited someone. I would say anyone should be a card carrying member; I joined the organ donor register when Sylvia was first diagnosed."

By Abigail Bates