A diabetic who who thought he had a common cold was shocked when he was given a “ticking time bomb” diagnoses by doctors weeks after he got married.
Mike Molyneux, 32, was told he had diabetes when he was a child and took regular insulin injections to help manage his blood sugar levels.
However, in his 20s, complications arose with his condition and he had both kidney and pancreas transplants.
In May 2022 he married Nattalie, but a month later was struck down by what they thought was a cold, before their lives were turned upside down.
Medics found his transplanted pancreas had started to fail and his kidney function had dropped to a dangerous level.
In January they were told Mike has stage five end-of-life kidney disease – potentially giving him just years left to live.
Nattalie, 29, told the Manchester Evening News: “When you get given the diagnosis, you don’t think anything of it but when you get home and research it, it’s the worst one.
“It’s a death penalty; you’re like a ticking time bomb.
“All of a sudden Mike got really poorly, I remember him having a rough day. We thought he had caught a common cold, he’s quite prone to them.
“[A few days later] he was completely unresponsive. He was arched over in bed. He had a fever of more than 40C; he was delirious. He was crying in pain asking for help.
“Mike’s only remaining option is to receive another kidney transplant – but the likelihood of him surviving long enough to receive one on the waiting list is slim.
His wife has now set up a GoFundMe page so Mike can make as many memories with his wife and daughter, Phoebe, in his time remaining.
Nattalie said: “I set up the GoFundMe page because we have a little girl who’s six. She idolises daddy and over the last few months all she’s seen is him in bed, tired and not wanting to do anything with her. He’s depleted.
“If he’s going, let’s go out with a bang and do as much as we can for him so she remembers the fun things she did with dad, even if I have to push him everywhere.
“There’s nothing I can do. There’s no medicine I can give him. There’s nothing I can do to make it better and that’s hard for me because he’s a soul that should be on this Earth.
“He’s one of the best people and it’s just so hard being a wife and a mum. We only got married in May and within weeks of being married we had this scenario saying: ‘This is the end of your fairy tale’.
“I want to raise as much awareness as I can. Just by doing a simple test and getting on the donor list, even sharing a page of someone who is going through it.
“It’s the small things you can do to help people with kidney disease. If one person reads this and goes on the donor list, that person might be the match I need for my husband.”
