WEST Fife mum Louise Paton got further involved in the fight against kidney disease at the Scottish Parliament.

In December last year, her little boy Daniel Cornet, 3, had a long-awaited kidney transplant and she joined experts, patients and MSPs to discuss ways to advance vital renal research.

She was asked to take part by Kidney Research UK who Daniel helped raise a staggering £130,000 for when he starred in an awareness campaign.

“I was there to give a patient’s view and what it would mean for Daniel and for renal kids going forward,” explained Louise.

“This was the first time Kidney Research has ever gone along with researchers to chat to the government to look at ways we could increase research with Scotland.

“It is very easy to talk about the science and about the money but that doesn’t relate to anybody. When you have people there who can say what it means to the person.”

The hope is enough research will be done in years to come which will lead to better treatments and medicine which, ultimately, could mean that dialysis and transplants are no longer necessary.

“From the start of that research, we should have some good answers and measures in five to 10 years and that is talking about regenerative medicine to repair kidney damage,” Louise said.

“They are wanting to look at cells to fix them before they get to needing dialysis and then avoiding transplants altogether. Then in 20 years time, they could be growing kidneys from stem cells.

“But if that research is not started, it will always be 20 years away.

“A kidney transplant doesn’t last a lifetime. The average lifetime is about 10 to 15 years so, potentially, Daniel might need two or three more transplants in his life.”

Since his operation at the end of last year, little Daniel, who won the Press Bonny Baby competition in 2014, has been going from strength to strength and returned to nursery after the Easter holidays.

He even managed a weekend away with mum Louise and dad Nicky where he got to swim for the first time since he was a tiny baby.

“He is doing ok,” added Louise. “He is back at nursery and loves being back with his friends. Some staff at the nursery have taken on board the task of learning to tube feed.

“He is taking it all in his stride. His body is not reacting very well to one of his anti rejection drugs and we have had a few issues.

“We are now trying out our first four week clinic gap which is probably the longest since September so fingers crossed he will be able to manage that.”