Burgess Hill man tackles gruelling marathon challenges to encourage others to be a kidney donor

Paul Saker ran three half marathons in a month and is training for three tough bike rides – two at 80 miles and one at 100 miles.

The 42-year-old is taking part to raise money for Kidney Research UK after seeing how a kidney transplant transformed his wife Dee’s life.

He hopes his story, on World Kidney Day today (March 12), will encourage other to consider giving the gift of life.

Paul, who works for EDF Energy, said: “I’ve been running for around ten years, but now have a sense of purpose and a focus to raise awareness and raise money.

“I’m doing it to prove to others that being a kidney donor doesn’t make any difference to your quality of life. I want to encourage others to step forward and consider being a donor. Having a transplant transformed Dee’s life.”

Dee found out she was suffering from kidney failure in 2014 and, in 2016, the couple were told she would need haemodialysis until a suitable donor could be found.

Paul said they were warned it could take up to seven years for Dee to receive a kidney from the deceased donor list.

Dee decided to have dialysis at home, with the remote support of the home haemo team at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

He said: “Dee suffers from rheumatoid arthritis so she could put the dialysis needles in and complete the treatment, but she couldn’t take the needles out, so we had to arrange her dialysis sessions around when I was at home and back from work. It was very difficult for her.

“I wanted to donate a kidney, but we are different blood types, so I assumed it was not possible.”

Despite not being a match for Dee, Paul became an organ donor and joined the matched pairing kidney scheme to help another patient.

He later saw a leaflet in a clinic about the shared donor scheme, where a person who is not a perfect match can still donate a kidney to allow a loved one to receive a transplant.

Four times each year, the willing donors and their linked recipients are run through a matching programme and the donations and transplants are carefully scheduled.

He said: “I had a chat with support staff to find out about potential risks and have no regrets. I am still running and have felt no ill effects. In fact, the only evidence that I donated is a small scar.

“I really want to highlight that anybody can donate. Once I learned about this scheme, I didn’t think twice.

“We were lucky that Dee received a brilliant match which worked well. She only had to wait a and her body hasn’t rejected it.”

May will mark Dee’s two-year anniversary of her surgery, which has given her a ‘much better quality of life’.

Before her transplant Dee would get very tired and found the dialysis process to be stressful.

Now, she has much more energy and is currently cycling a mile for everyone on the kidney waiting list between her first and second ‘kidneyversaries’.

Paul said: ”I need to extend a huge thank you to EDF who supported myself and Dee through all of this with time off and a phased return to work. They’ve been amazing.”

Visit Paul’s fund raising page here.