Lincolnshire man born with one kidney completes Wainwright peaks challenge

A man born with one kidney has climbed all 214 Wainwright peaks in the Lake District during his treatment.

Steve Harrison from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, started his challenge after his kidney began to fail.

He began dialysis and dropped to seven stone (44kg) - but he still kept climbing.

He had a transplant in 2020 and has now completed the challenge and said he was incredibly thankful to his donor, "they really did change my life".

Mr Harrison discovered he was missing a kidney after a health check at work in 2011.

By 2015, when he set himself the walking challenge, his one kidney functioned at about 20%.

"Over the years it got worse and worse. Even on dialysis I kept going because I thought if I sat still and didn't do anything it felt like I was giving up," he said.

By 2020, his kidney function dropped to just 6% and he started dialysis at home during lockdown.

Finally in December 2020 he got the call to tell him a kidney was available for him at St James's Hospital in Leeds.

On reaching the summit of his final peak, Wetherlam, on Thursday, he said: "It's emotional, but it's a happy, kind of pinch yourself, I can't believe I've done it type of emotion. I'm very grateful everyone's been here to see it."

Asked if he thought he would ever complete the challenge, he said: "No definitely not. Especially not in 2020.

"I knew I was getting weaker, so I was thinking we'd only done 115, basically we had another 100 to go.

"I'd dropped down to seven stone and things that were standard for people had become really difficult, like going up and down the stairs and I had fingers crossed for a transplant really."

Mr Harrison's wife Donna recalled the most difficult period in 2020: "They wrote to say they're going to restart transplants for people under the age of 40 and the Covid-19 risk was 50/50 for living or dying.

"We sorted out our wills, all those sort of things. At 37, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my husband."

At the end of the climb, she said: "Through somebody's selfless act, somebody lives on. And we've got to do it justice."

The peaks, involving 36,000m (118,000ft) of ascent, are featured in Alfred Wainwright's seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

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