Nehal Shah • Advocates • LLTGL

Nehal Shah received a kidney after 5 years of waiting. She is of Asian descent and is one of our London Advocates.

Nehal is 22 years old and lives in Stanmore. Her two older sisters both studied at university in England, and later Nehal and her parents also moved from Kenya to England just before her 16th birthday in 2002. Having spent most of her life weak and ill, hers with most other schools not being wheelchair friendly at all, and help for students not being very available in Kenya, Nehal spent almost as much time out of school as in, thus missing quite a bit of lessons and not being able to catch up very well with her work.

In 1999, Nehal had a thorough medical check-up, including a scan of her kidneys. The scans and the other tests done on her kidneys showed that they were working only 60%. Nehal’s family was told that she would eventually need a transplant. At that time, dialysis was not mentioned at all. After spending 8 months in hospital from August 2002 till April 2003, Nehal had her first dialysis session on 16th may 2003, and has been going for dialysis 3 times a week ever since.

Nehal has now been on the waiting list for a new kidney for 5 years, since starting dialysis. As she is of Asian decent, her wait will be longer as only 1% of the organ donor register is made up of the Asian population.

Behind Nehal's quiet exterior is a very determined young lady who is keen to raise as much awareness as possible. Ricketts, a complication stemming from her kidney failure, have resulting in her being confined to a wheelchair but that definitely does not stop her!

Nehal recently organised a walk round her hometown to promote organ donation and has featured in a video raising awareness about the lack of Asian donors. She also featured in a video created by Live Life Then Give Life to raise awareness about organ donation within the Asian community.

When asked what the wait for a transplant was like, Nehal replies “Like being tied to a very short leash in a room full of things to enjoy - you can see all that is there, but you can't reach the things yourself.”

Now she has a new kidney Nelly says: "I love having more energy, being able to go out more and knowing that if I go anywhere or do anything, I won't already be tired near the beginning. Despite still having problems it has already made a huge difference to me, and that and not being tied down to a machine 3 times a week every week and being able to eat whatever I want to.. all I can say is Thank You to my donor's family, but it still wouldn't be enough!"