Colleen Myers and her brothers Terry and Brian Docherty are so close, they share the same kidney disease and two even have kidneys transplanted from other family members.
The trio inherited polycystic kidney disease from their father Des, and from a relatively young age they knew they were likely to need kidney transplants. The disorder creates clusters of cysts within the kidneys, eventually causing them to fail.
All three went through long periods of dialysis before getting transplants.
Terry (59), of Mosgiel, was the first to receive a new kidney. He had two potential donors, but neither was compatible.
‘‘So, in the end, my daughter lined up to give one of her kidneys. She was pretty young at the time and I wasn't too keen on the idea.
‘‘But she rang up and made an appointment with the doctor - she was pretty stubborn about it. She just went ahead and did it.''
He received a kidney from his daughter in November 2012.
Talking about it made him very emotional because he believed she was trying to give back a little of the chances in life he had given her as she was growing up.
‘‘She gave me a second chance at life. For anyone to donate any organ is a big thing,'' he said.
Mrs Myers (53), of Oamaru, received a kidney transplant last August, from her elder sister Anne-Maree Cook, who did not inherit the disease.
‘‘I owe her my life. I can do the things that I enjoy, that I was limited in doing when I was on dialysis.
‘‘It's great to have energy again. I can do so much in a day again now.''
Brian (61), of Oamaru, received his transplant last month.
He was working in Palmerston when the call came to get himself urgently to Christchurch, where a kidney had become available from a deceased anonymous donor.
He had been under the care of the dialysis unit at Dunedin Hospital for nearly five years.
‘‘It's a real tie. By the time you set it up, you're more or less there for seven hours every second day. It makes you tired, groggy - you have a lack of energy.''
He said dialysis just kept you ‘‘ticking over'', but you never felt great.
‘‘I was alive, but I didn't really feel alive like I do now. I've got my life back again.''
All three said they had not realised how sick they were until they had transplants.
Mrs Myers said because of their shared kidney disease, they always had something to talk about at family gatherings.
‘‘It's a condition we share. We used to talk about the dialysis. Now, we talk about our transplants.''
Terry said the illness had brought them closer together than ‘‘your average family''.
‘‘Probably not so much in your younger years, but as you get older and your kidneys start to fail, you all become so much closer because you all know you're going to have to go through dialysis.
‘‘We provided a close support network for each other,'' he said.
The siblings said they were working hard to look after their new kidneys, by living clean and healthy lives, but it was likely they would need another transplant before they finished their ‘‘innings''.
They appealed to the public to consider putting their names on a kidney donor list because it could give sick people a second chance in life.
Today, the trio are celebrating World Kidney Day by sharing their story to raise awareness of kidney disease, and to say thank you for the care they received from both the Southern and Canterbury District Health Boards.
They hoped their stories would give hope to people on dialysis, and let others know ‘‘that if they get a kidney, it's life-changing''.
