Two minutes to change a life

9:37am Monday 25th August 2008

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BMW worker Paul Bateman has battled through a lifetime of pain - but just two minutes of your time could change his life forever.

He narrowly escaped death in a car accident 39 years ago.

The crash, near Sturdy's Castle, on the Oxford to Banbury road, killed his electrician boss and left him with a broken back.

Now 57, Mr Bateman suffers from crippling arthritis and medication has caused his kidneys to fail.

Three nights a week, he leaves work at the reprographic department at BMW and spends four hours on a kidney dialysis machine, which removes impurities from his blood, at the Churchill Hospital.

Every day, he wonders whether this will be the day he gets a new kidney - but Oxfordshire has a shortage of donors and 13 people have already died in the past four years while waiting for new organs.

advertisement Mr Bateman, from Blackbird Leys, Oxford, said: "I had a narrow escape when I was a lad and I still believe that tomorrow could be the day when I get a new kidney and my life is transformed.

"I have to think that way, even though I know there's a shortage of donors."

Mr Bateman was working as an electrician's apprentice when the Mini he was travelling in collided with an articulated lorry, which had swerved to avoid another car.

The driver of the Mini, 29-year-old David Harris, of Kennington, was killed instantly .

Mr Bateman said: "When I came round, I found I had broken my back and my leg and was in a pretty bad way. I hope David didn't feel anything, like they say. I was then in hospital for three months."

He underwent a series of painful operations, including three hip replacements and a knee replacement and despite being left with painful arthritis, has worked for BMW and its predecessors, British Leyland and Rover, for the past 35 years.

He said: "I have taken lots of steroids for my arthritis over years and eventually, two-and-a-half years ago, my kidneys failed and I had to go on dialysis. Being on dialysis is not fun and it controls everything.

"Because of work, I do what they call the twilight shift up at the dialysis ward, but that often means three days a week, I leave the house at 7.30am and don't get home until 10pm.

"I spend a lot of time tired, but I hold on by telling myself that two-and-a-half years is around the time most people who get a transplant actually wait for one - and I carry my mobile phone everywhere, just in case."

Prof Peter Friend, clinical director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, said more than 400 people from Oxfordshire and neighbouring counties were waiting for kidney and pancreas transplants in Oxford.

He said: "Here in Oxfordshire, patients are waiting for years for transplants and people are dying, because they're on dialysis for so long."

Mr Bateman said: "I don't think a lot of people realise how many people's lives would be changed if there were more transplantable organs.

"It only takes a few minutes to sign the register, but it can totally change the life of someone like me."