A man was shocked to discover his frequent tiredness turned out to be kidney disease.
Darren Daniel put his symptoms down to working hard when he started to experience headaches, stomach pain and tiredness.
The 42-year-old had also been suffering from swollen ankles and cramps but avoided going to his GP, not thinking it would be serious.
On the morning of March 5, 2017, Darren recalled waking up and feeling "unusual" with blurry vision and slurred speech.
He thought he was having a stroke and was rushed to hospital where medics thought the same thing, reports Wales Online.
But an ECG scan and a CT scan found that this was not the case.
Fortunately for Darren, a junior doctor suspected something else and insisted his urine was tested, confirming his diagnosis as kidney disease.
Now, he is hoping to educate others around kidney disease and wants people to take better care of their health and look out for the warning signs.
Darren, from Ammanford in Wales, said: "I was placed under the care of a nephrologist in Morriston Hospital in Swansea who confirmed the diagnosis after a biopsy and further testing.
"I had something called Nephrotic Syndrome which is usually present in all end stage patients, and can lead to serious issues with kidney disease.
"I had stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease and Nephrotic Syndrome, and looked likely I would go into kidney failure."
Nephrotic Syndrome is a group of symptoms that indicate your kidneys aren't working properly.
The main function of the kidneys is to clean blood by filtering out excess water, salt and waste products from food.
However if your kidneys are damaged, protein can leak into the urine.
As a result, there is not enough protein in the blood to soak up the water which can then move to other parts of the body causing swelling and putting a person at risk of infection.
Darren said: "I was completely dumbfounded at first. It's not something you tend to hear a lot about unless you're going through it or unless you're close to someone who's going through it.
"I never used any other terms or things for apart from transplant and dialysis.
"So I assumed straight away that I was going to need the transplant.
"I assumed straight away that I was going to go through dialysis and be hooked to a machine and not have much of a life and basically be severely restricted on everything for the rest of my life.
"Everyone seems to think that it's a life sentence when they hear the world kidney disease."
Instead, Darren took himself away and did as much research as possible. He read all about the disease and educated himself on what he could do to make himself better.
"After seven years, I have beaten Nephrotic Syndrome and my kidneys are in much safer place," he said.
"I followed advice from my doctor and from various charities websites and I feel a whole lot better. I'm sat at stage 3 kidney disease now with a brighter future."
People with chronic kidney disease can live long lives with the condition, but in some cases their kidneys may stop working all together.
Darren said the diagnosis was a wake-up call to look after his health.
"I was on a fast track to kidney failure after they discovered that, until they calmed down," he said.
"Then basically what caused it all was high blood pressure so I was put on blood pressure medication.
"I changed my diet, I gave up cigarettes. It just basically changed my life around.
"And hard work and dedication is what my doctor sees it as. I see it as a bit of luck as well, with the way it's turned out, I've beaten the protein.
"Now I have none whatsoever in my urine. There's no protein in my urine at all. After six years, it's been a long journey, but it's helped with everything I've done. I think it's a bit of luck involved as well, just catching it at the right time."
Darren's diet consists of low sodium and low salt plus more fruit and vegetables.
He exercises a lot more and has given up smoking. He has also given up fizzy sugary drinks which he said don't help toward controlling blood pressure.
He joked: "I give up chocolate for around a year and a half as well, just to make sure that I could keep on top of the reducing my sugar intake. And I love chocolate, I really do. That was very difficult to do as well."
Darren runs a TikTok account which he uses to educate people about kidney disease, highlighting the symptoms that come with it. He is also heavily involved in charities aiming to raise awareness of the condition.
