Badminton has ‘given me everything’ after kidney transplant

“We knew before he was born that there was going to be kidney issues which was quite stressful, because you didn’t know what the outcome of that was going to be,” Adam Morton told BBC Sport Wales.

“He was very poorly to start with, going down with pneumonia when he was first born and was in intensive care for a very long period of time.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to pull through at that stage.

“It was all down to whether or not he had a growth spurt as to whether or not his kidney could keep up with his body and whether it could still perform at the rate its needed to.

“Unfortunately his kidney didn’t keep up and things started to move very quickly.”

After testing the family, Adam was deemed the best match for Archie and so begun the long process of trying to avoid infections so the transplant could be completed.

The first time the doctors went to perform the surgery, they discovered an infection in Archie.

“That was a big moment for us, I found it quite destructive and Archie struggled with it too,” said Adam.

“We had to go home then and we had to make a decision then.

“I decided to stay isolating because that made me available for a cancellation.

“Obviously a lot of operations weren’t going ahead because of Covid, so it was worth the risk, so I didn’t go back to work.

“I stayed isolating and they got in touch with us, having cleared up Archie’s infection, and we went back in on 21st December, with the operation going ahead successfully.”