After suffering from renal failure in his forties, Tom Milburn has enjoyed 21 extra years of life, thanks to a kidney donor. He talks to Sharon Griffiths.

TOM Milburn had a 21st party last weekend, with lots of cards to prove it. Not bad for someone who's actually 71. For this was a 21st with a difference. That's how long it is since Tom was given a kidney transplant and, literally, a new lease of life. "Tom and his kidney have been together for 21 years. Let's celebrate," said the invitations.

Celebrating with friends and family were members of the team from the RVI in Newcastle who had carried out the operation and looked after him since - surgeon George Proud, Senior Physician Mike Ward and nurses and admin staff .

Tom, a quantity surveyor from Durham with three teenage children, was in his mid forties when he suffered chronic renal failure. For five years, he underwent dialysis in a Portakabin in the back garden.

"I was grateful for it, of course, especially to have it at home, but dialysis rules your life," he says. "It was three times a week, so I could only work part-time. If I was working away, down in London, for instance, I had to arrange dialysis down there. Family holidays were impossible. Once or twice we got away to places where I could have dialysis, but that still meant I was hooked onto the machine for much of the holiday."

While on dialysis, Tom could never be left alone and wife Joan, a teacher, became an expert on dialysis machines - especially when they went wrong. "Which they always seemed to do at the worst possible moment, " she says. "It was dreadful at times, but you had to laugh about it, otherwise you would never have coped.

"It affected the whole family, of course it did We couldn't always give the children as much time as we would have liked but they were wonderful, very understanding." Even though one daughter had a knack of stepping on the lines and setting off all alarm bells.

Finally, when he was 50, Tom had the call to Newcastle for the transplant. In fact, it was the fourth call. Three times he and other would-be transplant recipients were called to the hospital while surgeons did tests to see which one was best suited to the kidney.

"We all sat in the same waiting room, waiting for the same kidney," says Tom grimly. "And for each one of us there, our lives depended on it. As I was getting older and had waited so long, I thought I'd missed my chance."

The fourth time, he was the only one called as it seemed such close match. Within days of the transplant he was looking and feeling better than he had for years . "I couldn't get used to having skin that was pink, not grey," says Tom.

He eventually went back to work full time. The man who previously could barely climb the stairs, took up golf, played bowls and went swimming. He took part in the Transplant Games and he and Joan raised money for the Northern Counties Kidney Research Fund. Best of all, he enjoyed life.

"I'll never forget the first holiday we went on. After all those years of being tied to the dialysis machine, we just set off and took the caravan to France for three weeks. The freedom was wonderful."

He has to be extremely sensible about his diet. Beer is banned, but he enjoys an occasional whisky.

All he knows about his kidney is that came from someone in Leicester. He doesn't know who it was, hasn't met the family and thinks, on the whole, it's best that way.

"How can you ever thank them properly? But the surgeons told them the operation had been a success and told them how grateful I am. It transformed my life, gave me my life back."

And Joan's too, of course. She met a group of school children from Leicester recently and told them the story. "I just wanted them to know what a great thing it was."

Of course, it hasn't been entirely straightforward. The long term use of steroids and anti-rejection drugs - especially those used 21 years ago - have combined with age to cause some problems. Tom has had a heart operation, and suffers from diabetes and osteoporosis. "I sit in the clinic in a waiting room full of women and get some very funny looks," he says. But for anyone having a transplant now, the drugs are much improved.

"When I had my transplant, it wasn't a new operation by any means, but it still wasn't routine, the way it is now. The drugs are getting better all the time.

"If anyone's wondering about carrying a donor card I would just like them to know what a donor kidney did for me. I've already had 21 years I wouldn't have had, and hope for a few more yet. I've seen my children grow up and seen my grandchildren. I think that's worth celebrating."

KIDNEY RESEARCH FUND

The Northern Counties Kidney research fund is entirely voluntary and has no paid administrators or fund-raisers. Every penny donated to the fund goes to research, around £250,000 a year.

Since it was set up in 1970, the fund has endowed seven research posts at the University of Newcastle in various aspects of kidney disease and transplant immunology. It can be contacted c/o Ward 30, RVI, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP. www.nckrf.org.uk