Carronshore patient's race against time for life saving transplant in Cambridge

Ex Falkirk Fury player Rory Wilson (24), from Carronshore, is waiting to see if he will be accepted for a life saving procedure known as a multivisceral transplant – involving the liver, small bowel and possibly even a kidney.

Mum Donna Dunlop, who calls Rory her gentle giant, said: “They want to see him in Cambridge for this assessment to make sure he is fit enough to go through the surgery.

“If he is okay to go ahead with the transplant it means he will be in the hospital down there for three months. Then he will have to stay down there for another three months outside the hospital as he recovers, checking in at the hospital regularly so they can see if his body is accepting the new organs.”

Rory’s fiancee Rebecca MacAdam has started a Just Giving page for the cause and the family initially set a target of £1000, but the total has now gone over £3000 and rising.

The cash will help pay for Rory’s long stay in Cambridge – ensuring he does not have to worry about money, accommodation or food.

Rory’s health concerns are bad enough, but there is one situation making things even tougher for the big lad.

“COVID-19 has been a massive problem for Rory,” said Donna. “He had come out of the hospital at the start of the year just before the lockdown started and has had to self isolate ever since.”

The biggest headache with COVID-19, however, is the current level of restrictions down south may delay Rory’s operation.

Rory is certainly a fighter, however, and has been through major operations since he was a teenager.

When the former Carron Primary School pupil started his fifth year at St Mungo’s High he had to stay off sick for most of the year and was eventually told he had ulcerative colitis.

A few months later he was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis and autoimmune hepatitis and had to be put on yet more medication.

The a couple of years later at college, Rory had to be rushed to hospital to undergo a liver transplant. Unfortunately his body rejected the organ and some weeks later he had to undergo another transplant.

Over the next five years everything was going fine for Rory – he even found time to star in the 2017 World Transplant Games in Malaga helping the Team GB basketball squad to win silver.

However, in November last year, he had to have his large colon removed, suffered a perforation in the small bowel and contracted sepsis.

He now requires dialysis to help his kidneys continue to function.

Then in August, Rory had to go through yet more surgery to cut away scar tissue suffocating his bowel.

Now recovering in Edinburgh Royal, his main nutrition comes from an NG feeding tube.

Donna said: “Cambridge is the only thing that will make a difference for him – he will never be able to eat properly unless he gets this operation. This operation in Cambridge is about his whole future.”

Visit www.justgiving.com and search for Rebecca MacAdam’s Rory Wilson page to donate to the cause.