Making life count after transplant

Anna-Marie Lever
Health reporter, BBC News

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Rod Lenette: 'After seeing friends die, it has made me realise I have to live my life the full'.

Former world arm wrestling champion Rod Lenette has been given a second life.

"This time last year I was coming up to my fifth year of dialysis. Waiting for a kidney transplant was like treading water in the middle of the ocean," he says.

Rod's kidney failure occurred as a side effect of acquired lipodystrophy. A disease he developed when he was three years old and causes severe fat loss and diabetes.

He received a kidney transplant last November at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

"I got the call that a kidney was available at 7am on the way to dialysis. By 7pm I was in the operating theatre getting it whacked in."

Part time job

Rod describes his dialysis as a 'part time job', having to spend hour on hour hooked up to a machine. Over the years he made friends with the patients in the beds next door.

"Those guys were great; we used to have a good laugh."

However, for some, a transplant never came.

"That person I used to talk to - he died. It really made me realise I have to live my life the full. Every day is a history day."

For Rod, making everyday count means enjoying time with his three children, "I want to be the proper dad I have always wanted to be over the last five years, some of my children have never seen me well."

Arm wrestler champ

As former world arm wrestler champion, Rod has a lot of trophies

He is also determined to turn his hobby into a job. Before his illness Rod was British, European and world arm wrestler champion. He hopes it may be possible to reach the top in the sport again and is training hard.

"I can do more now than I could two months ago - and hopefully in two months, twice as much as I am doing now - if everything goes to plan I will be back where I was."

He has started hosting arm wrestling championships in his local town of Bedford and is working on an invention, 'The Grappler' to turn arm wresting into an all body sport.

Opt-out

His thoughts of the untraceable person who donated their kidney, allowing him this second chance, are never far away.

"Without them I wouldn't be sitting here today. I want to thank that family."

Around 1,000 people in the UK die waiting for a transplant every year. Rod knows too well that he is one of the lucky ones.

"People are inherently lazy. They may want to donate their organs but never get round to getting a card. Organs are just going to waste. I want an opt-out system."

Last November Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call for presumed consent, where registration would be automatic but with an opt-out, was rejected by the UK Organ Donation Taskforce.

They said that assuming organs could be used unless people opted out was unlikely to boost donation rates.

Instead, a £4.5m public awareness campaign was announced for England aimed at boosting voluntary donor numbers.

The situation will be re-assessed in 2013. Rod will be watching and hoping for a change in the law.