WINNING a gold medal just one week after a major operation is something most people could never dream of.

But for little Daniel Cornet it was all in a day's work as he triumphed in the British Transplant Games on Friday, seven days after leaving hospital.

Last month the soon-to-be eight-year-old from Dunfermline had his remaining native kidney removed, after having his first taken out at 10 months.

The youngster, who will go into P4 at St Margaret’s Primary School after the summer, was born with end stage renal failure and has now faced 28 operations, including a kidney transplant in 2017.

Mum Louise Paton told the Press: “It is so new he still has the pen marks from the operation on him – he has bounced back very quickly.

“His first kidney had started causing infections (before it was removed) and he had started to get them again. They meant that he lost function in his transplant, from 75 per cent to 50 per cent in the last year, and he is just more tired now than anything else.”

Though that doesn’t stop this wee boy as he spent last week watching and competing in the Games – which Louise called the ‘Transplant Olympics’ – alongside a bus load of other kids from the unit at Glasgow Children’s Hospital.

And the trip to Leeds proved a success, as Daniel came away with a gold medal in Mini Tennis.

“I was told several times that things might not go well so it is amazing to see, all these children wouldn’t be here without donors,” the 42-year-old added.

“He doesn’t remember the worst of it, he just gets fed up that he isn’t like his friends. Last week in hospital he said ‘I just want to play with my friends and not be in this dungeon’!"

She added: “You get used to it, it is a way of life, but it can take up a lot of time. He enjoys school but if you ask him he will say he doesn’t! He has had COVID three times and pneumonia so has had a lot of time off, but when he is home and well he is in school.

“He gets excellent reports. He works so hard, he is very social and very happy to just go off by himself."

Daniel will take medication every 12 hours for the rest of his life and will need another transplant when his first fails – though there is no way of telling when that could be.

“You just don’t know, we have no idea, we will just cross that bridge when we come to it," said Louise.

“He sometimes says ‘It’s not fair’ or ‘Why is it me?’ but he hasn’t asked any deep questions about it. He had a moment of realisation on the bus to Leeds that everyone there was the same as him – everyone was being moaned at to hydrate! – all the same things.

“It has been amazing for all the kids and the parents, I have been able to have conversations with parents who are going through it, which is uncommon, it is bringing all these people together.”

The pair joined 11 other families from the same hospital unit heading to the Games, all sponsored by Kidney Kids Scotland.

Daniel, who won the Press Bonny Baby competition in 2014 and was named one of our community champions four years later, will turn eight on Monday, celebrating with a “gaming van party”.

You can follow his story on Louise’s Facebook page, Daniel’s Diary.