The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Dying gran’s appeal to save her life
People: ‘I just want the chance to watch my grandchildren grow up’
Pat Proctor, pictured, who is slowly dying of kidney failure, has made an emotional plea to the public to donate an organ so she can live to see her grandchildren grow up.
A woman who is slowly dying of kidney failure has made an emotional plea to the public to donate an organ so she can live to see her grandchildren grow up.
Pat Proctor, 69, suffers from a hereditary condition called polycystic kidney disease, which could kill her at any time.
The illness has damaged her two organs so badly they are now only functioning at eight percent.
She has to go through three exhausting rounds of dialysis everyweek, but this is not a permanent solution and Mrs Proctor is living in constant fear that her life will be cut short.
As her father died from the condition aged just 53, and her brother had to have a transplant six years ago having also been diagnosed with the illness, it is unrealistic any of her family members would be suitable to help her.
So now t he grandmother-of-four is pleading with healthy readers of the Press and Journal to consider giving up their organ to help her live out the rest of her life.
She said: “Doctors haven’t given me a time frame. It could kill me at any time.
“Because the illness is hereditary, receiving a kidney from a family member is a no- go. Most of my friends have their own health problems as well.
“Doctors tested my kidneys and found that they were functioning at below 8 %”
That’s why I’m asking members of the public if someone could come forward.”
Mrs Proctor, who works as a carer for the elderly, said she found out she was suffering from the lifeshortening illness when she was just 45.
Despite knowing her dad had suffered from the condition, the news still came as a shock to her.
She added: “It just took me back to when he was dying and how ill he was. I didn’t want it to happen to me.
“We found out it could be hereditary about five or six years after my dad died. We all went for genetic testing and me and my brother found out we had the gene.
“Before I went on the dialysis last year it was just fear. I was just living in complete fear of the illness.”
The Aberdeen grandmother said she had been attending hospital after she found out she had the gene every couple of years.
However it soon became every year, then every few months until last year.
She added: “Doctors tested my kidneys and found that they were functioning below eight per cent. That meant I had to go on dialysis.
“I’m on it three times a week for four hours at a time. You’re hooked up to a machine and it clears your blood of all the toxins.
“It leaves you completely exhausted, it’s horrible. It’s very debilitating.
“I’ve always been a positive person and I like to get out and do things, but it stops you.”
Clean-living Mrs Proctor, who has four grandchildren aged between five and 12, has been on the transplant list for the last year but is worried that she might be overlooked for a new kidney due to her age.
She said: “I worry that because of my age, doctors might look and think, ‘oh, she’s had a good life’, compared to someone younger. I hope I don’t get overlooked.
“I’ve always been a healthy person. I don’t smoke and I only have the occasional glass of wine.
“I’m on the transplant list. It could take three or four years to get a kidney, maybe longer. There are no guarantees.”
It’s the precious moments with her grandchildren that Mrs Proctor fears missing the most.
“I like to play games with them and take them to places of interest,” she said.
“They are all very sporty as well so I like to watch them play sport. They’re still all so young. I just want to see my family grow up and be happy. It’s just horrible worrying that I might not be able to do that.”
There are 6,500 people on the kidney transplant list in Scotland.