Patient: Navya

Twenty-year-old Navya Naidu lives on the outskirts of Bangalore with her father, mother and grandmother.

The excellent student who won a scholarship to study business management at a local college is always active and participating in sports. But, like 250,000 others in India, she has been diagnosed as suffering from a failing kidney.

To survive, she must undergo painful and expensive dialysis at the Narayana Hrudayalaya dialysis ward three times a week for the rest of her life – unless she can find a suitable donor for a transplant.

But even the $10 a session cost, three times a week, is a financial burden for Navya’s family as her father can no longer work as a result of a motorbike accident.

His accident and Navya’s illness has placed their family in a desperate financial position. With four mouths to feed, their only income comes from selling the milk of their two cows.

It is now more important than ever that Navya receives a transplant, finishes her degree, and gets a job so she can provide an income for her family.

Because of the risk of illegal harvesting, Navya can only receive an organ from a living donor and after long family discussions, her grandmother has volunteered one of her kidneys. It is a big sacrifice for an elderly woman – but one she is happy to make for the chance to give her granddaughter a normal life.

If the operation is successful Navya, who is always cheerful despite her illness and a favourite in the dialysis ward, will be able to complete her education and support her family, get married and have her own family in due course.

Without the support of the hospital in providing cheap dialysis and a subsidised transplant, the family’s future would be bleak and the promise of a productive and happy life for this bright and engaging young woman cut short.