Woman's donor plea: 'I am at the mercy of someone's kindness to live'

Monet Lambert says she is "desperate" for a transplant

A woman who is waiting for a kidney donation fears she will not live to see her 30s unless a donor is found.

Monet Lambert, 26, was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2016 and has had two transplants since then, but said both were rejected due to a disease that attacked the new organs.

Her body is now also rejecting dialysis and she has issued an appeal for a potential donor to come forward.

She said: "I am at the mercy of someone's kindness to live."

Ms Lambert is on a fluid limit of one litre per day

Ms Lambert, from Leicester, said her "world changed overnight" when she was diagnosed with kidney failure at 19.

She said: "Within weeks I had a neck line placed into my main artery so I could go on a dialysis machine to keep me alive.

"I've been in limbo ever since. I've spent years on the machine, my veins and heart being battered."

Ms Lambert had two transplants in the following years, neither of which lasted longer than 18 months.

It was discovered she was born with Berger's disease (IgA), which became active and attacked the new kidneys.

'Body gets weaker'

"Losing the first transplant broke my heart and losing the second was unbearable," Ms Lambert said.

She said she has faced a number of complications but had "found the courage to try and survive" and currently has to undergo dialysis four times a week.

"Overtime, the body gets weaker and that's what I'm experiencing now," she said.

"My body isn't tolerating dialysis. It's affecting my heart now and I truly fear that I won't see my 30s."

Ms Lambert's family have offered their kidneys but were either not a match or unsuitable

Ms Lambert says the only way she can survive is with a transplant, and has issued an urgent appeal for a donor.

She said her family and friends had been tested, but had either been deemed unsuitable or not a match.

Lisa Burnapp, associate medical director for Living Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said living kidney donation was "highly successful" and that more than 1,000 people have had their lives "saved and transformed thanks to the generosity of donors they don't know".

"Any healthy adult can volunteer to be assessed as a living donor and a kidney from a living donor is the very best treatment option for most patients with kidney disease," she said.

"If approved, they are matched with a suitable recipient from the transplant waiting list, or they can also enter into a sharing scheme which enables one donor to potentially "trigger" up to three transplants.

"Everyone can also help by confirming their decision to donate their organs after their death on the NHS Organ Donor Register."

The NHS says more than 5,500 people in the UK are on the National Transplant List in need of a kidney, with details of how to become a donor available here.