A BRAVE teenager facing years of painful dialysis after his body rejected a kidney transplant is urging people to give life to others like him by donating their organs.

Aiden Smith, 19, from Wallisdown, is in Dorset County Hospital recovering from an operation to remove the kidney he received three years ago, which became infected earlier this year.

He will have to undergo dialysis three times a week to clean his blood until he gets another kidney - and says he knows people who have waited up to eight years for a transplant.

"He really is going through hell and there are not enough donors," said his mum Lynne, who is joining him in an appeal to members of the public to sign up to the donor list.

"What are you going to do with your kidney when you are dead?" Aiden said.

"When you're dead, you don't need it. Do something to give life to somebody else."

Aiden, from Wallisdown, was born with major health problems and had five operations in the first months of his life, including one to remove a kidney.

When he was nine, he was given an award by Dorset Ambulance Trust after saving Lynne's life by calling an ambulance three times in one week because her blood sugar levels had dropped dangerously low due to her diabetes.

He had his first transplant at the age of 16, eight months after collapsing at a friend's house with kidney failure.

Aiden has been in and out of hospital all of his life with complications, and in 2003 raised £1,000 for Southampton General Hospital's kidney unit by having his legs and back waxed. He started an agricultural course in Dorchester two years ago, but his body had never quite accepted the transplant and he had to drop out because he became so ill.

He had an operation to remove the donor kidney three weeks ago, and he knows that even when he gets out of hospital, his enjoyment of life will be limited.

"I can't work - it's very hard to find someone to employ me due to possible time off because of illness," he said.

"Four hours of dialysis three times a week is a lot of time out of my life, and I never know when they're going to keep me in hospital."

Close friends and family are able to become living donors and Aiden's uncle, Colin Shepheard has offered to help.

But he will have to undergo numerous tests, so even if he is a match, it will be at least a year before Aiden gets his new kidney.

The UK transplant NHS website says the average waiting time for a kidney transplant is two-and-a-half to three years, and the number of people needing kidney transplants continues to increase.

To sign up as an organ donor, or to find out more about donation, look up the website on www.uktransplant.org.uk or call the NHS organ donation line on 0845 6060400.

First published: August 25