By James HoreA WOMAN who was given a new lease of life after her father donated his kidney to her is celebrating her engagement. Just a few years ago Claire Rogers' future looked uncertain.

By James Hore

A WOMAN who was given a new lease of life after her father donated his kidney to her is celebrating her engagement.

Just a few years ago Claire Rogers' future looked uncertain. Serious illness meant she unable to walk upstairs without becoming exhausted and was constantly tired.

The support worker had been ill since 1996, but in 1999 her father, Paul, underwent the surgeon's knife to donate one of his kidneys to her.

Miss Rogers, of Manor Road, Dovercourt, is now able to lead a full and active life and works with adults with learning disabilities.

The 24-year-old is also celebrating her engagement after her boyfriend, Mark Vidler, 23, proposed while on holiday in Tunisia.

Miss Rogers said: “Mark went down on one knee when he asked, it was so romantic. I did have a bit of an idea he might. We have already set the date for June 2005 and we are planning on a local wedding.

“Before the operation I did not have a life, I was always out of breath and was really tired. It gave me a new lease of life and everything changed for the better.”

The happy times of today are also a far cry from her experiences following the operation.

Miss Rogers fell seriously ill four months after the kidney donation when she suffered a bad reaction to the anti-rejection drugs she was taking.

She spent the next seven weeks in hospital, where she was given 14 blood transfusions, seven plasma exchanges and dialysis - and doctors warned her family her new kidney would almost certainly fail.

The problem was so severe her parents feared their daughter might die, but Miss Rogers proved to be a fighter and pulled through.

james.hore@eadt.co.uk