A regional press journalist who received a kidney transplant last year is campaigning to get her colleagues signed up to the organ donor list.

Eastern Daily Press property correspondent Caroline Culot suffered kidney failure and was a dialysis patient for eight years before her transplant. She now hopes more members of staff at parent company Archant will sign up as organ donors to help save lives.

Back in 2004 Archant was one of the first media companies to offer staff the chance to register their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register via the Network intranet.

Chief executive John Fry backed the company-wide campaign – he had been a kidney donor card holder for 23 years.

Caroline started to experience kidney problems during her first pregnancy and after the birth she was told both her kidneys were failing and that she would need dialysis.

She said: "I can't actually put into words how that felt except it was the first time I had experienced real fear; not for myself but for my newborn baby.

"I didn't want him to grow up without me. That was ten years ago and over that time, the fear has continued to haunt me but also motivated me.

"When I have been at my very lowest, the will to be here for my son has spurred me on and driven me to pick myself up and get on with life – against all odds.

"For years, only those close to me knew that behind the bubbly, self-confident EDP news reporter, I was a fragile little girl struggling every day with the idea that life was never going to be the same again. But, with the aid of spiritual healing, which still gives me courage, I went on to start home dialysis."

She eventually needed to go to hospital three times a week for haemodialysis treatment but, despite the procedure taking more than three-and-a-half hours on each visit, she refused to let the illness get the better of her.

She said: "I just made myself get through it. I refused to be ill on dialysis; I refused to be late at the school gates; I refused to give up work."

Then, one day in February 2007, the phone rang. It was Addenbrooke's telling her to get to Cambridge immediately because a kidney had been found. She returned to work last June.

Caroline said: "I never take the new kidney for granted – every day not having to go on dialysis is a day to rejoice, and although I can't let that rule my life, I try to remember it, especially if I feel I'm having a bad day.

"Whatever happens in the future, no one can ever take away the time I've had free of needles, of doctors, and pain and the time I have had to spend with my husband and son rather than be wired to a machine.

"This was thanks to the decision made by one young person before he died, or perhaps by his family at their time of loss, for his kidneys to be donated."

Find out more on organ donation and register online at www.uktransplant.org.uk.

Submitting Information

Click here to have your say on this story