SAVING HONOUR 'SHE'S TAUGHT US TO ENJOY LIFE'

A devoted Auckland mum donated her kidney to her daughter

- Cloe Willetts.

As Andrea Sergeant was wheeled into a hospital operating theatre to have her left kidney removed five years ago, she wasn't nervous or thinking about the pain of recovery. Instead, the devoted Auckland mum was wishing she was at the bedside of her daughter Honour, who'd recently been diagnosed with end stage renal failure.

The kidney Andrea was donating was about to be used in an organ transplant that would save the life of her then-five-year-old girl.

"It was really hard being separated from Honour because as any mum knows, if your kid's crying or upset, you want to comfort them," says Andrea, 42, who underwent the surgery in October 2019.

Honour was eight weeks old when Andrea and her husband Craig, 50, noticed she had a head wobble. A brain MRI didn't show anything out of the ordinary, but when she was six months old, the youngster had trouble with her balance.

After an eye check, Honour, now 10, was diagnosed with ocular motor apraxia, a neurological disorder that makes horizontal eye movements difficult. But specialists said it wasn't linked to anything else and so the family carried on with life.

Within a few years, Andrea knew something wasn't right.

Honour was often tired and looked pale and "yellowish".

The youngster also became extremely thirsty and her growth slowed down.

Eventually, after persistence from Andrea, Honour was given a blood test in March 2019 to check for coeliac disease, as well as her renal and thyroid function.