Jayda Osman with 17-year-old daughter Aaliyah

A MOTHER is appealing for a kidney donor to step forward so her daughter can have a potentially life-saving operation.

Jayda Osman, who lives in Clerkenwell with Aaliyah, said her 17-year-old was suffering during gruelling dialysis that she says leaves her daughter in pain, depressed, and unable to live her life.

Dialysis sessions, which are routine for kidney failure patients, last for several hours and put a significant strain on the body.

“Basically, putting her on dialysis is like a little washing machine cleaning her insides. Your kidneys take away all the toxins from your body, and her kidneys can’t do that. So, without it, all of the toxins will stay inside her body and poison her body from the inside,” said Ms Osman, who lives in Central Street.

“She enjoys school, she enjoys seeing her friends, going on holiday, and all of that has just been stripped away from her.

“She always used to be a happy child, and now she’s not. She’s always drained, she has no energy. She’s moody all the time, but that’s because she’s in pain, she’s in a lot of pain.

“The new kidney would take that pain away.

“The doctors have told me that as soon as she gets her new kidney she’ll be back to her old self again, able to go to school, and back to her day centres that she goes to.”

Aaliyah has a rare condition called primordial dwarfism, and while it’s not exactly clear that this is the cause of her kidney failure, Ms Osman says that people with the condition often develop kidney problems.

Ideally, Aaliyah needs a kidney donation from a live donor, as this will reduce complications which are more likely due to her disability.

A donation from a live donor is expected to last up to 25 years, while a dead person’s kidney might only last for 15.

“Aaliyah needs all of her specialists to be there on the day of the transplant. If she does have a deceased donor, it could be two o’clock in the morning, I’ll get a phone call saying Aaliyah needs to come in, and her specialists might not be available – it’ll be hit and miss,” said Ms Osman.

Aaliyah is a creative person, and her mother just wants to give her quality of life back to her.

“She loves planting things. She likes to play with the soil and plant her plants – she loves stuff like that, stuff she can actually get her hands into and get dirty. She’s made me hummus and baked cakes in school. She loves painting and drawing as well.

“We travel a lot, we always go to Cornwall to see family, or we go back home to northern Cyprus, because we’re Turkish Cypriots, and she just loves being in the garden at my mum’s house in Cyprus. She’s very sociable and loves being with my cousins, or being on the beach, but that’s more limited now because of her kidney failure.”

If you are interested in donating, please contact Ms Osman at jayda.osman@gmail.com If you know you are blood type A+/A-/0+/0- then please give extra consideration to donating.