Jane Elliott
BBC News Online Health Staff |
 70 years with one kidney |
When vicar John Waddington-Feather collapsed on holiday in Adelaide his family were worried that he was suffering from deep vein thrombosis. The Australian hospital checked him out and said he was merely dehydrated.
But their extensive checks revealed that the 70-year-old had been born with just one kidney.
And as Reverend Waddington-Feather reeled from the shock that he was living with just one kidney, he was dealt another massive body blow.
Tumour
His remaining kidney had a huge cancerous tumour on it and doctors said it would need to be removed.
"How life can be turned on its head in a twinkling! I had gone to the theatre healthy, a little jet-lagged but buoyant enjoying the company of good friends and a good performance.
"I returned in the early hours of the morning stunned, gob-smacked and minus a kidney in a performance of the most miserable sort.
"Of course I'd been minus a kidney all the time, but there's a difference between knowing and not knowing. Ignorance is bliss and now I was well and truly unblessed."
 |  When you are faced with your own mortality three days a week on dialysis it is a great impetus  |
A former paratrooper, boxer and rugby league player Rev Waddington-Feather admits his life could have been very different if he'd known that he had been born with just one kidney.
"I had led such an active life. I had gone out to the Sudan and worked as a volunteer teacher. I'd had hepatitis, malaria and amoebic dysentery."
Surgery
Last June surgeons removed his remaining kidney and he started the gruelling dialysis he must continue until he gets a kidney transplant.
The Rev Waddington-Feather has always been a keen author, penning romantic and detective novels as well as poetry.
And he said his diagnosis had spurred him to become even more prolific.
"When you are faced with your own mortality three days a week on dialysis it is a great impetus."
Now the Rev Waddington-Feather must wait for a year to ensure his body is clear of cancer before they can consider a transplant.
Faith
But he said he had been greatly supported by his faith.
"To speak glibly about the buoyancy of faith at times like these would be mealy-mouthed.
"Faith came and went like a tide, but certain it is I was upheld by prayer; by the prayers of friends across the world; by my own daily discipline of prayer and bible reading; and by the prayers of non-Christian and atheist friends who candidly admitted that they were praying from me."
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