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GRAHAM Batley just wanted a normal life.

To have a job, even do his own shopping, maybe have a pint with friends.

But none of this was possible while his life was on hold as he waited for a kidney and pancreas transplant.

"They could have held me over a burning flame for 48 hours. I could take it," he said of what he would endure to get his life back.

And a year ago he had the kidney and pancreas transplant which made him one of the lucky ones.

"Most of those poor souls I saw at dialysis will never get a transplant," he says.

"Dialysis is their life."

It was also his life during the three days a week he spent on a dialysis machine at Chelmsford's Broomfield Hospital for four years.

By then, 51-year-old Graham was medically retired from his work as a careers advisor and the only social life he had to look forward to was visits from his daughter Rebecca.

The threat of kidney failure had changed his life although he had never allowed his blindness to do so.

He had previously managed to cope on buses in Colchester thanks to his white cane and at work using a talking computer.

But then he reached the stage where he needed a round-the-clock carer because renal failure meant he could collapse without warning.

"I used to collapse in the street, in the shops and at work and would wake up in Colchester General Hospital," he said.

"It got so I was on first-name terms with all the ambulance crews in Colchester."

When he describes his life as a nightmare, he is simply stating the facts - he believes in being positive in life.

His gradual decline into blindness was caused by the diabetes which complicated his kidney problems.

The new pancreas and kidney have put an end to that now.

Constant checks and medication will always be a part of his life to make sure his body does not reject his new organs.

But he now has a life - having started a new job as a careers advisor at Chelmsford College within five months of his organ transplant.

He can enjoy simple pleasures like having a pint at the pub with friends.

"The transplant was my ticket to getting my life back," he stressed.

2:38pm Friday 15th February 2008

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