My premature twin sons, Matthew and Ben, came into this world just 45 minutes apart. Ben was a healthy, thriving little baby, but Matthew was not so lucky.

Matthew was born with just 2% function in his kidneys. We watched and worried in the Neonatal ICU as his tiny body grew puffier and puffier, while his diaper remained dry. When he was five days old, they took him into surgery and placed a dialysis catheter in his stomach. Matthew started on 24-hour dialysis that day.

The first two years of my beautiful baby boy’s life would be touch and go. There were times I was so scared that I was going to lose Matthew. But I’m here to tell you that research into kidney disease saved his life.

We’ve come a long way from those early days in the Neonatal ICU (NICU) at IWK Hospital in Halifax, where Matthew spent the first three months of his life. He was on dialysis 24 hours a day, because his small body could only tolerate so much. At first the dialysis had to be done manually, so a nurse had to be with him at all times. When he was big enough, at 19 months old, he received a transplanted kidney from my husband, Andy.

Matthew’s transplanted kidney will only last 10-15 years, maybe a bit longer. Dialysis was so hard on his little body and caused him to be sick for so long. I hope that, by the time he needs it again, researchers will have come up with a type of dialysis that will be easier on the body.

Of course, we were lucky that we had a living donor in my husband to rescue Matthew from dialysis. I know many people spend an average of four years or more on the waiting list for a donated kidney and that a third of them will die as they wait for their transplant.

I’m worried about what will happen when Matthew’s transplanted kidney stops working, when he’s in his late teens, or early 20s if we’re lucky. Will he be able to get another donated kidney?