MY MUM SAVED MY HUSBAND'S LIFE

As she watched the man she loved fade away, Anneka Watkinson, 38, didn't know where to turn. Then came an offer she couldn't refuse...

- KERRY HARDEN, LAUREN GREGORY

Butterflies fluttered around my tummy as I prepared to walk down the aisle.

'Ready?' Mum asked, taking my hand. I nodded and, arm in arm, we walked towards my husband-to-be.

It was April 2023 and my mum, Lesley, then 63, was giving me away to Chris, 39. It should have been a perfect moment but, as I said my vows, the words 'in sickness and in health' felt so poignant. And as I looked at Chris, I could see dark circles under his eyes, his skin was pale and he looked so tired.

We'd met two years earlier on a dating app. I'd been a single mum, working as a community nurse, and Chris was a builder. On our first date, Chris revealed he had an autoimmune condition called IgA nephropathy, which had led to his kidneys failing three years earlier. He had been so ill, he'd needed a transplant. 'It's given me a whole new perspective on life,' he said.

Within months, we were a couple. His two daughters got along well with my two, Lily, then 10, and Alfie, eight, and within a year, we'd all moved in together.

In April 2022, Chris proposed and we started planning our wedding. But as our big day drew closer, Chris's energy began seeping away. Tests showed his kidney function had decreased from 35% to 18%. His condition was damaging the transplanted kidney. Exchanging vows on our wedding day, we smiled through our worries, but Chris wasn't himself. By the honeymoon, in Barbados, Chris's kidney function was at 6%. He was exhausted and breathless, and when we got home, he was unable to go back to work. He needed a new kidney – and fast.

But after having already had one transplant, he didn't want a live donation. 'It's a risk for the donor and my body might damage the kidney,' he said. Instead, he hoped for a match from a deceased donor.