Most university students are out enjoying freedom away from home and living worry-free - but instead Hattie Stiff found herself on dialysis, awaiting her second kidney transplant.

The now 28-year-old from Wincanton, Somerset, is so grateful that her dad was able to donate a kidney to her, and this World Kidney Day (Thursday, March 13) is speaking about the importance of donors. "It's the best gift I could get," Hattie shared, explaining that she received a transplant first when she was just two and a half years old.

She said: "I was born six weeks early, and when I was born, they realised that my kidneys weren't formed properly, so they were quite cystic, and they hadn't fully formed into normal kidneys."

Hattie was put into intensive care at two and a half years old, and "luckily managed to avoid dialysis," but she was "closely monitored" and then received her first transplant. It was from an adult female who was on the donor list and had an aneurysm and passed "quickly".

Hattie said she was "eternally grateful" for this woman, who she doesn't know the name of, because, before the transplant, she was "really unwell every day" and was "tube fed and couldn't eat properly".

When they operated, they had to remove one of her kidneys because it was "tiny and basically not there at all," and the right one was "almost formed properly" and had "kept her going". But, because the adult kidney was so big and she was only two and a half, they had to remove her right kidney and implant the adult one on that side. 

"I lived happily for 22 years with minimal stints in hospital," Hattie shared, noting that she was on immunosuppressants, and she ended up having to be home-schooled as she was picking up too many germs.

She went back for her GCSEs, though, and "started making friends again" after being home-taught for seven years. Then, during sixth form, Instagram was becoming popular, and Hattie decided to post lifestyle content there, including fashion ideas.

When she was at university, though, she was told by the hospital she would need another transplant soon and would need to be on dialysis for two weeks. It ended up being "just shy of two and a half years". 

She had dialysis for three days a week, four hours at a time - and this is when her dad started to undergo tests to see whether he was compatible. But then Covid came along and "elongated the process".

During this wait, though, Hattie was becoming increasingly unwell and suffered two mini strokes as her blood pressure had become so high. Her transplant was cancelled four times, and the fourth time, Hattie's dad was "in the operating gown, in the theatre, ready to be put under anaesthetic, and they cancelled it".

She said they were "devastated," and it was a "lot to deal with" - but then, exactly 22 years after she received her first transplant, she underwent surgery to receive another from her dad.

"Touch wood, it all went really well," she gushed, saying that now she only has to attend "hospital appointments every three months" and feels good.

During Covid, she found things really isolating as she was shielding, and her social media became an outlet for her to inspire others and make a community of others going through something similar to her.

It wasn't initially her plan to speak about her kidney disease, and was instead posting about petite fashion inspiration. However, when she had a line fitted during dialysis, she knew she couldn't hide her ongoing health battle from her followers.

Hattie shared that she posted about her scars, saying that people asked her where she'd got them from, so she explained. "From there, I just posted about the treatment, pretty much every day, about what was happening, my symptoms, getting the line fitted, and I realised how many people were going through the same thing," she shared.

Hattie realised it wasn't just her who was going through the same thing and made a community with her page.

She wanted to be the "representation" to younger people who were going through something similar, as she noted that a lot of the patients she saw around her were "60 and over".

"When you're in the trenches, it feels like that's all you have going for you. All you have is your kidney disease; all you have is dialysis. It really does, understandably, consume your life because you spend so much time worrying about it. I wanted to show that yes, this is a huge part of you and your life; it doesn't define you," Hattie said. "You can have hobbies, you can have other things that you do, you can still wear fun outfits," she explained, admitting that when she first had her line fitted, she was "self-conscious" about "grossing" people out. But she then came to terms with it because it was vital to her recovery, and she couldn't help it, and it was "keeping her alive". 

"I just wanted to be that light at the end of the tunnel for people because that representation wasn't there for myself; I wanted it to be there for others. And it's made it all worth it knowing I've made a difference to even a few people's lives by sharing my story," she shared.

With regards to organ donation, she said she understands why people may panic about it, but if you're eligible, it means "you can live a full life, but someone else gets to, too". She said her life is "full of colour again" after receiving a kidney and that there is "no better gift."

You can check out the NHS website to learn more about donating a kidney as a living donor.

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By Danielle Kate Wroe Senior, Social News Reporter - Bristol Post