A SPORTY kidney transplant survivor is making excellent progress and urging people to save lives by become donors

Twenty-year-old Matthew Rimmer of Brook Gardens, Harwood, was first diagnosed with Allports Syndrome when he was just two years old.

His family were told it was inevitable his kidneys would eventually fail, but it was unlikely to happen before his twenties.

But in November 1998 he was forced to leave college when his kidneys packed up earlier than anticipated and he began dialysis while waiting on a transplant register.

Agonising

After agonising months of waiting in which he also suffered the death of his father, a suitable donor was found and Matthew finally had the life changing operation last June.

Now, eight months on, the keen hockey player is going from strength to strength and has helped to raise funds for the Mayor's Gift Of Life Appeal, which aims to find 2001 donors by the end of this year.

Matthew's Mum Marlene said: "The Alder Hey scandal has done nothing to promote our cause of encouraging people to become organ donors. People are still unsure of the difference between organ retention and organ donation.

"Last year, Matthew was unable to play any sport - from being a county hockey player he was unable to survive just ten minutes of a match. He has now been back playing for most of the season, playing well, scoring goals and surviving the full duration of the game. His life is great again and hopefully by next season his fitness will have fully returned."

Matthew, who works at Mecca Bingo in Breightmet said: " The operation has given me my life back. I am active again, my social life has come back and I am more or less full time again at work. I feel great and am having no health problems. My life is just back to normal again." Local MP Brian Iddon agreed that donation rates have fallen sharply in the last decade and were down from 2893 to 1820 in 1999, at a time when transplants soared. He has welcomed news of the Department of Health's £3 million plan to double the number of people on the organ donor register by 2010.The Government also aims to double the number of kidney transplants, and to increase the number of heart, lung and liver transplants by ten per cent over the next five years. Dr Iddon said: "It is very important that all those who would like to donate their organs ensure that they are on the Organ Donor Register and carry a Donor Card. It only takes a minute to register and can mean the difference between life or death for one or more people."