LIFE was very up and down before I had the transplant. I was quite seriously ill for a couple of years and I had to be hospitalised for a while. You get tired and the symptoms vary, but I dealt with it reasonably well. I was quite resilient to everything because I knew what to expect. What I had is a genetic disease and I'd seen it in my family history: my mother suffered for years and died when she was only 50.
I have two daughters - Kerry-Anne, who is 29, and Colleen, who is 25 - and my being ill did affect family life, but my husband William and I tried hard to keep things as normal as possible.
I was on and off the transplant list for two or three years. But when the call came I wasn't really expecting it. In fact, just that night we'd been discussing it, and I'd said, "That will never happen." And when the call did come I reacted very differently to the way I thought I would. To be honest, I imagined I would turn round and say no. I thought I'd be too frightened when the moment came.
I'd had a good response to dialysis for the first two years so I was too well to have a transplant at that stage. But eventually I knew that my options were running out. I was having a lot of difficulty. To quote one of the doctors, it was getting quite serious; my access for dialysis was worsening, which meant they couldn't get any blood.
This was early last year. I was called between 10pm and 11pm, got into theatre between 5am and 6am and I was sitting up in my bed by noon. It was a very quick recovery. I was back home in 11 days.
Having the transplant has made a vast difference to my life. It's lovely to be able to do things I'd always wanted to do. I've moved house to be near my grandchildren - one of them is three and the other is six - and I do a lot of things now that I never did before. I have more hobbies - I take singing lessons. I lost a lot of confidence when I was ill and this has been a way of building it back up again.
I can go on holiday now too - it's great to have the freedom of knowing I don't have to take dialysis equipment with me. I can go virtually anywhere now. When I was on dialysis at the beginning I was on an overnight machine and I was on another one four times a day at one point so I had to take all that equipment with me. On one trip to Germany I remember I had to take 24 boxes containing four bags, each bag weighing over 2kg. I'm planning a cruise to the Baltics and Scandinavia this year, which is something I wouldn't even have thought about before. And one of my daughters lives in New Zealand so that's my next trip.
I still get tired and I still overdo it, but I volunteer with Kidney Research UK because I'm very interested in making people aware of kidney diseases.
My grandchildren think it's great I can do more with them. Before the operation I couldn't have kept them overnight, but I do that now. They still tire me out - but they tire everybody out, don't they?
The person who donated their kidney is never far from my mind. All I can say is thanks - they've given me a new lease of life. I know someone had to lose a loved one and I never stop thinking about them. On the anniversary of my transplant I celebrated my new life and thought about them. But I'm thankful to everyone involved - the doctors, the nurses, all the medical staff.
I go back to the hospital every two months for a check-up and I'm taking things a day at a time. I don't think much about the past or the future, I just concentrate on the present.
As told to RUTH WALKER• If you are interested in finding out more about the work of Kidney Research UK, contact 0845 070 7601 or visit
www.nkrf.org.uk