A YOUNG girl who has received a lifesaving kidney from her mother says she will “continue dancing forever”.

Maddison Howard was nine years old when she complained to her parents, Paul and Clare, about a pain in her ankle. Paul took her to York Hospital for a check-up, where an X-ray found what looked like bubbles around her bones, and a week later a blood sample was taken.

Paul said: “We got a call asking us to come back to the hospital because they thought the blood test had been mixed up.

“They said it looked like they’d mixed it up with the results of an 80-year-old woman with kidney failure.”

Maddison, from Rawcliffe, was suffering from kidney failure, and she was transferred to Leeds General Infirmary.

Paul said: “If we hadn’t taken her for the X-ray, who knows what would have happened.”

Within days, Maddison, who dances with Spotlight Dance in Acomb, was fitted with a dialysis catheter which meant her parents could treat her at home, in 11-hour nightly sessions, rather than take her to hospital several times a week.

Paul said: “She was back to school fairly quickly after getting dialysis, and back to dancing very quickly. She loves it. Once we were settled with dialysis, that’s when the process started with Clare and me to see if we were suitable for a kidney transplant and after about six months of tests for both of us, Clare was identified as a positive match.”

Clare said: “It was a bit of a shock on the day, when they told us. We went ahead, and knew it was the right thing to do, and I’d do it all again.

“I had to go to Leeds quite a lot and have ultrasounds and went through quite a lot, just to make sure I was healthy enough and that I could cope with going through an operation.”

Clare and Maddison were in different hospitals during the operation, and Maddison said she remembered feeling “a bit sick and dizzy” after the procedure. She spent 24 hours in intensive care before moving to the High Dependency Unit for about five days, then to a ward for several weeks. Clare was discharged after two days, but visited Maddison before going home.

Maddison said she now felt “amazing”, and “like I’m capable to do pretty much anything now”, while Clare said her daughter was “unbelievable”.

York Press:

Maddison with her parents at Disneyland Paris this summer.

Clare said: “They’re really impressed with her at Leeds when we go to clinic. She’s just doing so well.”

Maddison has enjoyed her summer ahead of starting secondary school next month, with trips to Disneyland Paris and Harry Potter World. She said she was “looking forward to the creative stuff like art and music”, but had advice for anyone else with an illness. She said: “Take your medicines, they’ll make you feel way better!”

Paul said their story was one which could have had a drastically different outcome, and urged any parents with concerns to speak to a doctor as soon as possible. He said: “There is light at the end of the tunnel. Just stick together as a family, and hope everything will work out, as it has for us. We’ve been really lucky.

I would say the last two years have been challenging but at the same time it’s been life changing and all three of us have come out of this different people, for the better.”

Paul, Clare and Maddison said they wanted to thank their family and friends, the teams at both hospitals, and our community nurse for all their help and support.

Maddison also said: “I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Spotlight Dance, especially my dance teacher Miss Sarah. She’s been an absolute star, helped me through all my dance classes, and she’s just so amazing.

"I will continue dancing forever.”