13-year-old Uqbah Muhammad from Bradford, suffering from a stage five chronic Kidney disorder has been appealing for a matching kidney donor for almost a year now. Uqbah’s mother, Ummarah Irshad, has already lost a daughter to brain tumour, and is giving it all to save Uqbah.
“She had quite a number of illnesses since birth, the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) has only come about in the last few years, unfortunately Uqbah was diagnosed at its last stages, four or five,” says Naila Khan, Umrah’s sister, and Uqbah’s aunt.
“Both her kidneys have failed,” she adds when speaking about Uqbah’s condition.
“She’s now undergoing dialysis to keep her going. She’s not got too much of an awareness or understanding of her surroundings. She finds trouble communicating.
Image: Nalia Khan
“Although she tries to talk a lot, smiles a lot, she tries to pick up behaviours from TV or other people around her. That’s where her emotional position is at the moment.
“She is going thrice a week for dialysis, on top of that she is attending other check-ups and tests that are needed. Despite dialysis and other things, her kidney function is not very promising at the moment and that is what is creating some urgency within us.”
Uqbah is on the kidney donor appeal list as well.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t had any luck at the moment” Naila Khan adds.
Going through dialysis and other constant medical treatments has also affected Uqbah’s day to day function. She was being tube fed.
“She is lactose intolerant too, so care has to be taken on what she is being fed as well, anything that has lactose can be fatal for her,” Naila states.
“Other than that, in terms of daily life, she is homeschooled, I myself am a teacher, so I plan for her. Fortunately, she is being blessed with a lovely education team at the hospital, so there is teaching going on”
Asian Standard also reached out to Ummarah Irshad who stated that doctors initially had little faith in dialysis for her daughter, “It was due to her challenging behaviour. So what the doctors did say to me, which was very traumatic and emotional at the time, that ‘we can’t do dialysis because Uqbah’s got a tendency to pull out things. So what they initially thought, that we might let her go naturally, basically not giving her any treatment
“It was very emotional and a tragic experience for me. I had faith in God, I prayed to God day and night. I believe it was a miracle that she survived through the dialysis chair. She is actually taking it really well.”
Uqbah has been looking for a matching donor for over a year now.
“We have reaching out to the media, social media and other means for over six to nine months now” Naila says.
“Luckily,” she adds, “We have had a lot of people approach us through social media, however, it’s just the initial stage, we don’t know how many are going to be a true match and will go through to the final stage.
“Because sometimes people read the article and are taken by emotions, so they make a rational decision of offering a kidney, but later when they realise what it entails they pull out
“We desperately urge as many kind hearted people to step forward as possible in the hope for finding a suitable donor for Uqbah in the hope of saving her life”.
“Ummarah has already lost a daughter at the age of four to brain tumour, this is her second daughter now, that she is scared of losing her. She has got a lot of emotional attachment with her. Her whole world revolves around her daughter, and she is doing everything possible to save her”.
Ummarah adds to the appeal, “I actually want to raise awareness not just for my daughters, but for all those who are in need of an organ. I would just say to the people, please help them if you can and save their lives.
“Especially calling out South Asian people, some people think that donating an organ is forbidden, because you have to return to God the way we were created, but look at the other side, if you save a life, you save humanity, my plea would be, not just for Uqbah, she is my daughter, my world, but for everyone out there, help them save their lives and save humanity”
The family of Uqbah Muhammad are on the look for a matching kidney donor with ‘O’ group blood. If you can help save Uqbah please get in touch with her family at leedskidneyappeal@nhs.net
