MY KIDNEY FOR MY SON

This Cape Town mom is determined to lose 50kg so she can give her boy the gift of life

- CINDY ISAACS

BEING diagnosed with liver disease at 12 was like watching his future vanish before his eyes.

Tiaan Janse van Rensburg dreamt of being a Springbok rugby player one day but he had to stop playing sport when he was told he had primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a chronic condition that causes bile ducts inside and outside the liver to become inflamed and scarred, eventually becoming narrow or blocked.

After that diagnosis Tiaan (23), who’s from Bellville in Cape Town, had to take immunosuppressants every day – but the medication had a devastating side effect: his kidneys were taking a hammering.

“At one point I was taking 21 pills a day,” he tells us. His kidneys weakened to such an extent they were functioning at only five percent of their capacity and Tiaan needed dialysis twice a week to flush toxins from his body.

His mom, Gerda (45), was devastated. Her son has had a range of health problems and was so ill as a newborn that doctors gave him only six months to live.