Devoted Falkirk dad has given his son the greatest gift

His father David Thomson, 48, donated a kidney to his son in August after the youngster suffered years of ill health, almost daily dialysis and had countless spells in hospital.

Thankfully the transplant surgery was a success and Dee, who turned 13 on December 16, has now returned home to the “brighter future” his family dreamed he would have.

After a normal, health early childhood, David and wife Helen, 44, were devastated when their son was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome.

Helen said Dee was a perfectly healthy baby, who grew up reaching all the right markers and went to nursery then Langlees Primary School. “He was hardly ever not well. He joined a football team, was thriving and living his wee life to the fullest.”

But the family’s life was to change when Dee was six and one Sunday he woke “looking like someone had blown him up with a pump”. By the next day it was worse and his anxious parents contacted the family GP who said to bring him in straight away.

Helen added: “I knew something wasn't right immediately when the doctor asked if he could bring in some of his colleagues to have a look at Dee. We were told straight away that he needed to go into hospital, the next few weeks were a bit of a blur with all the tests being done. Dee was getting puffier by the day and eventually got an appointment at Glasgow children's hospital and that's where the journey began.”

Doctors diagnosed Dee with nephrotic syndrome which can be treated by steroids, but sadly Dee was one of those children for whom this didn’t work.

"He was then diagnosed as having steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome and our lives completely changed,” said Helen. "Dee has been in and out of hospital ever since, and he has been on countless medications, some of which have caused horrendous side effects.

"We were travelling back and forth from Falkirk to Glasgow anything from two to six times per week, leading to him having to get central lines put in as it was becoming impossible for the nurses to get blood from him as he was carrying way too much fluid.

"Dee’s condition continued to deteriorate and eventually both his kidneys failed him altogether, leading to him depending on dialysis every day to keep him going. If he wasn’t an inpatient, we were at hospital five days per week.”

The youngster was receiving dialysis for over two years but earlier this year medics made the decision to remove both his kidneys leaving him fully dependent on dialysis. This cannot be carried out at nearby Forth Valley Royal Hospital meaning daily journeys to Glasgow.

David and Helen had put themselves forward as living donors to give Dee one of their kidneys and underwent a barrage of tests with both turning out to be a match. Initially his mum was to be the donor but previous ill health ruled her out and instead it was decided his dad would be the donor.

The operation was carried out in Glasgow on August 23 and after a few days as an inpatient David recuperated at the family home in Langlees, while Helen remained at Dee’s bedside in the city’s Royal Hospital for Children.

At the time Helen said: “Thankfully the operation was a success in that the kidney is working amazingly well. However, Dee’s condition means that the antibodies are now attacking the new kidney.

"He is to undergo a plasma exchange to try to get rid of the antibodies and at the moment we are just living day-to-day.”

This week Helen revealed that Dee’s condition had improved so much he was now able to attend Falkirk High School a couple of days each week and was only receiving a plasma exchange every fortnight.

"We are now down to one clinic visit every week and considering it used to be five times a week it’s amazing,” she said.

"At one stage we weren’t able to dream that we would all be back together again for Christmas but thankfully we were.”

Helen, who also has grown up son’s, Michael Todd and Greg Todd, had to give up work as a checkout operator in Asda Stenhousemuir to enable her to care round-the-clock for Dee.

Meanwhile, David was unable to work for some time after the donation but is now back working outdoors as a groundworker.

To help the family at the time, Helen’s best friend Jackie Graham set up a Gofundme page for the family to help them while David recovered and then hopefully to fund a holiday when Dee gets out of hospital.

Over £2100 was raised and Dee’s parents would like to thank all their family and friends for support, particularly Jackie, as well as all the NHS staff who cared for their son and David, both in hospital and now back home.

Helen added the last year also saw the sudden death of her sister, Sarah Ferguson, who was only 28, and who left behind a ten-year-old son.

"It all happened around the time of Dee’s transplant so it has been a very tough time.”

Now Dee is dreaming of the days when he can return to playing his favourite sport football and spend more time with his friends.