My name is Jean Howard-Jones and I was born in Sheffield, U.K. in 1943.
As a schoolgirl I enjoyed sport, playing hockey for the school and swimming for my city and county of Yorkshire until the age of fifteen. Upon graduating from college and after a brief spell in hospital catering, I became Senior Catering Advisor to Birds Eye Foods, a Unilever subsidiary. Following the birth of my daughter, I elected to become a full time mother and my life progressed comfortably until I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in 1991.The diagnosis was a complete shock as traditionally this is a hereditary condition and yet none of my family members had ever experienced renal problems. Consultants advised that I was therefore a new mutant.

Keywords: transplant