A man was left shocked when what he thought was a case of a broken toe resulted in the discovery that he urgently required a kidney transplant. Niven Hopkins, aged 27 from Bolton, experienced severe pain and swelling in his foot last year in July.
Due to initially struggling to secure a GP appointment, Niven recounted the ordeal: “I couldn’t walk, I struggled to get a doctor’s appointment for the first couple of days so I couldn’t take any medication or anything, I just kind of had to battle it.”
When he finally did get seen, his young age and healthy appearance surprised medical staff: “I managed to see the doctor and he said ‘we weren’t expecting someone like you to walk in, so young and healthy, we were expecting someone a bit older or overweight’.”
The situation escalated quickly for Niven when he received an urgent phone call early one morning instructing him to head immediately to the Royal Bolton Hospital following the analysis of his blood tests. He shared: “I got a call at like five in the morning saying ‘you need to go to the hospital right now, your blood tests are indicating your kidneys are failing.’ That was a big shock, obviously. My girlfriend was in tears.”
Niven’s hospital stay lasted approximately six days, during which time he underwent extensive examinations and was treated with a drip. Further testing revealed his kidneys were functioning at a mere 15 percent, leading to a dire diagnosis of stage four chronic kidney disease, reports the Manchester Evening News.
The gravity of his condition was such that doctors were unable to even perform a biopsy on his kidneys.
Niven, who is currently on the waiting list for a new kidney, expressed uncertainty about the cause of his condition. Despite doctors suggesting it might be due to a high-protein diet, he said: “I’m still not 100% sure that’s correct, personally I don’t think that. I wasn’t overly eating protein, it was regular. I’d have it with every meal, I’d have like eggs or the usual healthy stuff like chicken and at tea it’d be meat.”
He added, “I wasn’t having protein shakes, I don’t have protein shakes, I’d rather eat whole, natural foods. The shock of the gout was one thing, and then I had a kidney biopsy and they said ‘yeah, your kidneys are in that bad of a condition we can’t get a sample to test it’.”
Dieticians have advised Niven, an electrical and air conditioning engineer, to avoid dark-coloured fizzy drinks and red meat, and to reduce his salt intake. He is now awaiting a pre-transplant assessment scheduled for February, hoping to find a donor match to avoid the need for lengthy weekly dialysis sessions.
A passionate runner, Niven has completed marathons in Manchester and Barcelona and plans to run the 2025 London Marathon for Kidney Care UK, inspired by his mother Susan’s own kidney battles.
He shared: “My mum’s had two kidney transplants. I’ve seen her go through it all and seeing my mum go through that was a horrible experience, that was really eye-opening. To hear I’m going to have to go through it all, being in shock wasn’t the word.”
Despite his circumstances, Niven has remarkably succeeded in collecting over £3,000 for charity. While keeping up with his job and rigorously preparing for the marathon, he grapples with daily symptoms that leave him weary and sore.
He explained: “I do get fatigued quite easily, now I’m working all day then I’m going to the gym and having a run so that does also have an effect, so it’s hard to pinpoint that directly on the kidneys.”
“I have kidney pains, so my lower back where the kidneys are located, some days it’s really painful, almost like a dead leg but in your kidneys, a really dull, long pain, but I just kind of get on with it.”