'I Had To Lose 13st So My Father’s Kidney Could Save My Life'

Toni Skinley needed a new kidney to survive after she was diagnosed with renal failure at the age of 21.

However, at 23st, the supermarket worker was told she wasn’t allowed to have a transplant unless she lost some weight.

She opted to have a gastric band fitted and several months later in 2013 joined a Slimming World weightloss club in a bid to lose 10st.

The 28-year-old lost an astonishing stone a month and in just over a year she achieved her target weight.

Last May she had transplant surgery where she received a kidney donated by her father, John, 56. Miss Skinley, from Wigan, has since regained her health and is finally able to live a normal life.

She said: “Losing all that weight has literally saved my life. If I hadn’t lost it, Dad could have never donated me his kidney and it may well have cost me my life.

“Now I have a new kidney, I feel incredible. I have a new lease of life and it’s a fantastic feeling.

“Four months after the operation, I climbed Snowdon, something that I never thought would be possible when I weighed 23st.

“I regularly go bike riding and hill walking, too. I’ve got so much more energy now and I no longer need a machine to keep me alive.”

Miss Skinley was 21 when a routine eye test showed she had swelling on the brain. She was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with intracranial hypertension, or abnormally high pressure inside the skull, which doctors said may have been caused by her weight.

She underwent surgery to put a shunt into her brain to reduce the swelling and was about to be discharged from hospital when blood tests revealed problems with her kidneys.

Doctors diagnosed end stage renal failure and she spent the next five years hooked up to a dialysis machine three times a week.

“It was life changing. To have to have dialysis all the time was just so limiting and I piled on even more weight because of the medication I was taking,” she said.

Doctors later told her she would need a kidney transplant. Miss Skinley, who is engaged to Carl, 31, a project engineer, added: “My weight got so bad before the operation that I couldn’t get up the stairs without gasping for breath and I had to be hooked up to a machine at night otherwise I’d stop breathing.

“I had been such an outgoing person but because of my weight I couldn’t work for five years.”

Her father’s kidney donor operation and her transplant took place at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. They both made a good recovery.

Mr Skinley said: “I’m so proud of Toni. She did a great job losing all that weight and looks fantastic. I never hesitated to give her my kidney to save her life.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/641703/lose-father-kidney-transplant-weight