Mother receives gift of life from husband

For six years, Orelia mother Linda Barclay spent Saturday nights at home with her hot date Fred — otherwise known as her dialysis machine.

For 32 years, the mum-of-two battled kidney disease, receiving dialysis for up to 10 hours a night.

That was until March last year when her lifelong friend Colin — who she married six years ago — gave her the gift of life, and donated a kidney.

Now, Mrs Barclay has a new lease of life, and plans to use it to support others suffering from kidney disease at this Sunday’s Big Red Walk.

“We should have done it years ago — Colin always wanted to give me a kidney but I wouldn’t let him,” she said. “Now, I blame him for everything because part of him is always with me — he said he would give me the world and I got his sarcasm.”

The donation and transplant was not straight forward, however, because Colin’s kidney did not match Linda’s blood-type, thanks to rare antibodies in her blood.

“I had to have a rare procedure called apheresis, where it separated and removed two of my antibodies from my blood to enable my body to accept my husband’s kidney which it has done one hundred per cent,” Mrs Barclay said.

“How do you say thank you to someone who has done something like this for you? He’s my whole universe.”

Mrs Barclay, who has worked at Rockingham K-Mart for many years, said she was committed to raising awareness of undiagnosed kidney disease and hoped others would visit http://bigredkidneywalk2013.gofundraise.com.au/page/LindaB to donate to Kidney Health Australia.