Helen’s Story

Although I’ll always be a kidney patient my “renal family” of medical staff, patients and Kidney Wales are there to help and support me and my family.

Helen was diagnosed with Kidney Failure at 16 years old… This is her story.

I’m Helen.

I was diagnosed with kidney failure at 16 years old. Within a few months I was on dialysis and waiting for a kidney transplant. That’s a far cry from an average teenager’s life!

Thankfully, I only had to wait a year before receiving a kidney transplant which gave me almost 20 fantastic years of dialysis free life. Unfortunately transplants don’t last forever, and in 2015 I went back on dialysis. However, in 2019, after four years of waiting I received my second kidney transplant, just before the pandemic which was great timing!