Tony was so close to an Everest triumph

CLIMBING high . . . Tony on Everest

AN Oldham kidney transplant patient has narrowly missed out on conquering Everest.

Battling mountaineer Tony Ward’s attempt to scale the peak ended in disappointment after an infection restricted Tony’s altitude acclimatisation and forced him to retreat after suffering altitude sickness.

But he had still reached 17,780ft — close to beating the record for a transplant recipient.

Tony (45) said: “I made the right decision to come down. At the time I was a bit frustrated as I was so close and so much preparation and training had gone into it as well as the cost.

“It’s still quite an achievement. I’m recovering now but I was exhausted when I got back with altitude sickness and the infection.”

The former Saddleworth School pupil, who is currently in Wiltshire and whose parents live in Lees, has broken many previous records — amazingly climbing mountains despite being on kidney dialysis.

The mountaineering instructor suffered renal failure in 1998 and needed 10 hours of dialysis a day to survive — devastating a lifestyle and career he loved.

After complications from a failed transplant operation in 1999 he had four life-saving operations in seven days. He had a second transplant in 2005 with his younger brother, Steven, as donor. Again it was touch and go whether he would survive, as he suffered massive rejection problems and his weight plummeted to less than 8st, but his body eventually accepted the new kidney.

After receiving the gift of life from his brother he set about trying to get people to register as organ donors and raise funds for Kidney Research.

Tony has carried out the world’s highest dialysis on land when he climbed Mount Toubkal in Morocco in 2004 and also conquered the Matterhorn and Mount Blanc with his dialysis equipment. He has climbed the UK’s highest peaks.

To find out more about Tony visit www.tonywardadventures.com