Having a transplant doesn't worry me... my mum had one and look at her now.

Byline: Stuart Patterson

FOR a teenager awaiting a life-saving kidney transplant, Clare Mitchell seems uncommonly calm.

Last night, the plucky 19-year-old revealed that she has her mother to thank for her quiet confidence.

Six years ago, Frances went through the same operation. Clare said: 'I see how well she is now and I know that I'm going to be as healthy as her one day. That gives me hope.' Clare was shocked when doctors found she was suffering from kidney failure. She had to undergo energy-sapping dialysis sessions every day. Now she needs a new kidney.

The teenager, from Keith, Banffshire, said: 'It's tough but knowing mum went through all this and recovered makes life a lot easier.

'I can ask her questions because she knows exactly what I'm going through. She gives me a lot of help and support. I don't know what I'd do without it.' Clare had been suffering from sore feet for about two years. Initially her condition was diagnosed wrongly, until a biopsy revealed that the pain was being caused by gout, which is related to kidney problems.

Mrs Mitchell, 46, suffered kidney problems from the age of 30, before having a transplant.

Clare said: 'Mum reckons that I'm a lot more ill than she ever was. She said she would gladly give her kidney back and go through it all again to spare seeing me sick.' Kidney problems usually aren't hereditary and doctors think it is unlikely Mrs Mitchell passed on her condition to her daughter.

Now her family, including father Dougie, 44, and her brother and sister, Richard, 27, and Laura, 21, are rallying round to help.

Every day she has to undergo four sessions of dialysis and her immune system is affected so that in July she was taken into hospital and put into isolation after catching swine flu.

Mr Mitchell, a dairy worker, said: 'Clare picks up anything that is going around. We were shocked when she was put into isolation with swine flu because that showed us just how ill she really is.' Clare has been able to keep working as a part-time lifeguard at the local swimming pool. But the previously energetic girl now tires easily and has to pace herself. Nights out with friends are a thing of the past.

Mr Mitchell has volunteered to be a donor but he is still awaiting tests to show if his kidney is a match and the operation can go ahead in the new year as planned.

Clare said: 'My life has changed and now everything revolves around my illness. I can't just get up and go out. Everything has to be planned.

'I know that it's going to get better and that's what keeps me going.' Meanwhile, Mr Mitchell is now having to watch his daughter go through the same ordeal as his wife.

He said: 'It's not easy. It was hard enough watching Frances fall ill. But the two of them are helping each other and I think that takes a load off Clare's mind.' His wife, a supervisor at the Baxter's factory at Fochabers, Moray, said: 'It's agonising having to watch Clare suffer like this. 'The last thing a mum wants to see is her children ill. It's horrible. I've told her I would gladly go through it all again if she could be spared. But that's not going to happen.' Mrs Mitchell added: 'It's probably a bit of a blessing in disguise that I know just what she's going through. But all we can do now is just get through this. We've just got to take whatever life throws at us and get on with it.'

CAPTION(S):

Family support: Clare Mitchell, 19, who suffers from kidney failure, has taken inspiration from her mother, Frances