Father-of-two can now happily enjoy the simple things after life-changing transplant

THEY are simple things every parent enjoys.

Taking the kids to the park, playing football with them, running alongside their bikes as they find their balance on two wheels.

For Johnny Fraser, though, being able do those things is more than special.

The Inverness dad-of-two says he savours every such moment, as little more than a year ago they were impossible.

Diabetes had cost him his job, almost his wife and kids and he feared it was going to claim his life. Now a transplant has changed everything.

Johnny, 38, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was just five, but careful management by doctors and his parents ensured there were no real issues until he was in his 20s.

“I was working as a DJ and frankly I got a bit blasé about testing my blood glucose level regularly and taking my insulin,” said Johnny, who has kids Harry, five, and Olly, three, with wife Kerry.

“That’s one thing I’d shout from the rooftops. Don’t ignore those things and think complications won’t happen to you. They will, and in my case they happened sooner rather than later.”

Johnny battled with high blood sugars for years and struggled with diabetes consultants telling him that it was case of trial and error.

“They’d tell me to try this or that and when I’d ask if it was going to be the solution they’d just say they’d look at it again in three months.

“I kept thinking that these were the experts and surely they should know?”

He was always exhausted and by his mid-30s, when he was also constantly cold, he was diagnosed with kidney disease and put on dialysis.

The impact on family life was massive, more so than Johnny at first appreciated.

“Looking after the kids was all down to Kerry,” he admits. “I was in bed all time. The strains on Kerry of coping with everything and not appreciating the condition at the time were such that it almost broke us up.”

The couple, who weren’t married at the time, have since wed and Johnny’s life was transformed with the phone call last May telling him his transplant was going ahead in Edinburgh.

He had a kidney and a pancreas transplant and the change in his health has been dramatic.

“If it hadn’t have been for the transplant I don’t believe I would be here now,” confides Johnny, now re-trained for a career in HR.

“I was on my last legs with peritoneal dialysis, which I was having nightly at home. The only other alternative type involved needles and as I have such a phobia of them I said I’d rather die.

“Now from being barely able to bend down to tie my shoes, I’ve got a full life back.

“There isn’t a single day that I don’t say thanks for the donors. I will never take what I have for granted.”

With 4.5 million people in the UK living with the condition, Johnny is giving his full backing to Diabetes Awareness Week which begins today.

Know Diabetes, Fight Diabetes is the theme from charity Diabetes UK. Find out more at www.diabetes.org.uk

You can also find out more about managing type 2 diabetes at https://www.jenreviews.com/diabetes/