'We were losing hope for our little girl until one phone call changed our lives'
01.01.2024 - 14:45
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A schoolgirl who spent 10 hours a day hooked up to a machine while waiting for a new kidney has received a life-saving operation.
Grace Batterson, 12, spent 17 months on a dialysis machine, which removed waste products from her bloodstream in place of her failing kidneys.
The secondary school pupil, who was diagnosed with juvenile nephronophthisis in February 2022, was in desperate need of a double kidney transplant - but with no family donor available, she faced an uncertain future on a seemingly endless waiting list.
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In September she finally received the call she was waiting for - a match had been found through UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme, which she had signed up to with stepdad Paul Brewin.
When a match for one of his kidneys was found in late August, it was determined that that person's healthy partner was a match for another patient whose partner was a match for Grace - and so the three pairs were taken to Manchester for a complex three-way operation.
Three months on, Grace's mum Elaine said: "Grace is doing amazingly well. She struggled with school on dialysis because she just felt really rubbish.
“When we found out the transplant was happening in August, we made the decision not to send her back in September because we didn't want to jeopardise the operation by risking her picking any sickness up. So she only went back four weeks ago.
"She started on a phased return, at first doing only one day a week. She has absolutely loved going back.
“She was nervous at first because she was so much later than everybody else. She had not been in since July, and even then she wasn't able to attend that much, most of her