I can sit with my sisters, grateful teen says
Yuki Yiu is the middle child of three sisters.
A photograph of the sisters with their mother shows them on a day trip to Disneyland, an outing organised by Playright Children's Play Association - one of the Operation Santa Claus beneficiaries this year - so the family could be together for once, after Yuki had spent so much time in hospital.
Her younger sister towers over her. Yuki, 14, whose growth has been stunted by renal disease, had a kidney transplant a month ago and is back in Princess Margaret Hospital after developing a fever. It will be around six months before she knows whether her body will accept her new kidney.
'There was a mainland tourist who died here. He had a stroke and had a donor card on him,' she said about the organ that may give her a more independent life.
She began to experience kidney failure when she was nine. She has dysplastic kidney - where the kidney tissue does not grow normally, and has been on dialysis ever since. 'While my sisters could watch TV in the living room, I had to go to the bedroom and start my dialysis for the next 10 hours.'
While it is a problem for all children in this predicament, adolescents feel it acutely because they are unable to have any kind of social life. There is a machine in her bedroom with a tube that fits into her abdomen - flushing in water and cleaning out the waste that her kidneys cannot process.
With the new kidney 'I can sit with my sisters and watch all the drama series I want', she said.
Yuki waited five years for her transplant, while the mean waiting time is 10 years. She has slight acne, a result of the steroids and antibiotics she is on. She said her hands have a slight tremor, another side effect. She will need medication for the rest of her life.
But she says her parents are delighted that she has had this opportunity to start leading an independent life.
