Dan has drive to reach the top

A 22-YEAR-OLD racing driver who has been working towards a career in motorsport since he was six has had his aspiring career waylaid by an urgent need for dialysis as he waits for a kidney donor.

- RACHAEL DAVIS

> Dan Mackintosh, who lives in Dorset, dreams of a motorsport career despite battling nephrotic syndrome

(Collect/PA Real Life)

Dan Mackintosh, who lives in Dorset, has battled nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder that causes leakage of protein into urine, causing low blood protein, fluid retention, high cholesterol and increased risk of infection and blood clots, since he was an infant.

His condition is chronic and incurable, and despite his hard work to progress towards a career in motorsport he has faced numerous setbacks due to his health, robbing him of his dream to race in Formula 1.

Dan's interest in racing began when he was six years old, when his family moved from Aylesbury to Dorset and he found himself living around the corner from a karting track.

Dan and his dad went to the Clay Pigeon Raceway one weekend to watch the kart racing, and Dan remembers it looking like "really good fun", saying to his dad: "I'd love to have a try of that".

Dan's dad Terry is a keen motorsport fan, and they would watch Formula One, NASCAR, and touring car racing together - so he was thrilled with Dan's desire to start racing himself.

After school, Dan would go "round and round and round" the track, loving every second - and "eventually it got to the point where I was going quite quick, and they said 'you should start entering races", he told PA Real Life.

For his seventh birthday, his dad splashed out on an old go kart, the one he had been running laps of the track in for months, and used his basic mechanical knowledge to tinker with the engine while Dan improved his skills as a driver.

As time went on, Dan was able to join a team, access more powerful karts, and get a couple of sponsors on board to help with the financial side of racing.