'Waiting for a kidney offers me relief and hope,' mother needing transplant says

Eight days before Christmas day, Catherine Dato went through nephrectomy, a procedure involving the surgical removal of a kidney. She was only able to return to her husband Antonio and her two children, Massimiliano, 16, and Martina, 13, three days before Christmas.

“I know my children miss me a lot and home is the not the same for them without me,” says the heartbroken 45-year-old mother who suffers from polycystic kidney disease, a disorder through which clusters of cysts develop on the kidneys, causing them to enlarge and lose function over time.

“There are not enough words to describe my feelings as we decorated our home together a couple of days before my surgery,” says Dato, who had previously undergone another operation in preparation for dialysis.

Diagnosed at the age of 26, at the very beginning of her married life, Dato, who lives in Kalkara, considers herself extremely lucky to have her family by her side all the time.

Read: How to avoid kidney failure

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