Kidney patient Serala Suresh Kumar and her husband Suresh Kumar at St Clement's News, in Oxford

Serala Suresh Kumar was overjoyed when she received a kidney transplant in 1999.

For the first time, the accountant from Headington dreamed of having children and leading a normal life with her husband Suresh, 33.

But her joy was short lived. Six years after the transplant, the donor organ failed.

She was forced to go back on dialysis and now she is one of 1,170 Asian people in the UK awaiting a transplant that may never come.

For while Asian people are at least three times more likely to need a kidney transplant than the rest of the population, few donated organs come from the Asian community. And even when organs do become available, the chances of matching tissue and blood types are slim.

Mrs Suresh Kumar, 37, said: "The doctors have told me that I could have a very long wait for another transplant.

"It is hard. I would like to have children, but being on dialysis means this is very difficult, because of all the drugs you have to take.

"My brother tried to donate a kidney to me, but he was not compatible.

"I could go abroad and buy a kidney, but I am Sri Lankan and India, where this would have been possible, has now made the practice illegal, as it is here.

"The fact is there is a real shortage of Asian donors and I just have to cope and hope that another kidney will become available."

Mrs Suresh Kumar found out her kidneys were failing after she suffered headaches while studying to be an accountant. She said: "When I started to be really sick, they found out what it was. I was terribly shocked."

In 1996 her kidneys failed and she embarked on dialysis three times a week. She said: "The doctors told me the terrible position I was in and I was very upset, but what could I do?"

Three years later, she got the call she had been too frightened to hope for.

She said: "The kidney was from an Asian man who had been terribly injured in a sporting accident.

I knew how rare this was and to be given this gift from another person was fantastic."

To start with the kidney worked well and Mrs Suresh Kumar was thrilled when she fell pregnant, but sadly she miscarried.

Then the transplanted kidney stopped working properly.

Doctors tried to save the organ, but in February 2006, they were forced to remove the kidney and she went back on to dialysis.

"It was even harder the second time, because I had had those years of leading a normal life," she said.

"My husband and I have the St Clement's newsagent and I do the books and help out in the shop, but the dialysis makes me very tired."

She is treated three times a week, for three and half hours at a time, at the Churchill Hospital, in Headington.

She said: "I don't why the Asian community shies away from donating organs.

"As far as I know, it's acceptable for all faiths to donate. But it's a terrible problem, because so many people from the Asian population suffer renal failure."

More people from the Asian communities develop renal failure than the white population because they are much more likely to develop illnesses such as diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease, which can lead to organ failure.

Mrs Suresh Kumar added: "I'm happy to support the Oxford Mail transplant campaign and would urge people to sign the organ donor register. My story could become that of your sister, your wife, or your mother.

"I dream of leading a life without dialysis and having children "But in the meantime, I have a waiting game to play."

4:48pm Wednesday 26th March 2008

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