Organ donation is very personal to me. My mother, before her death, was on kidney dialysis for several years.
My friend was on dialysis for six years before he got a new kidney. I was on dialysis for eight months. I'm almost not even the typical person who has kidney failure.
We used to have to arrange things around the dialysis. I would have to plan where to play so I could be back in time, and couldn't go too far.
If you don't have dialysis, absolutely, you will die. Dialysis is actually keeping me alive.
It was in 2003 that I realised there was no choice but to have dialysis treatment - by the time of the World Cup that year, I could barely walk. A year later, I finally had a kidney transplant.
Often people expect I have some touching personal story about kidney disease, but it's actually the mathematics that led me to it.
I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It's - it's amazing.
I'd sometimes fly for 14 hours, then go straight to dialysis. I spent a little time being tired, but we managed. I'm not a pity-party person.
The dialysis is to wash my blood, to keep my kidneys functioning.
A person on dialysis undergoes very heavy and irritating treatment, and in time, it seems more than you can bear.
A patient healthy enough to undergo a kidney transplant might someday no longer need dialysis. That would free up a slot for a new patient.
I was on dialysis three times a week for four and a half hours each time.
I was in the hospital for about two weeks because I had some complications due to the transition to kidney from dialysis and getting off of that.
When I was on dialysis, I willed myself to do 'On the Town.' It accesses my most childlike, joyful love of theater.
Dialysis does not make patients well. It simply postpones their deaths.
I had severe asthma and kidney problems and would get 105-degree fevers. I actually almost had to go on dialysis for my kidneys. I was also in the hospital for pneumonia.
I was on dialysis for 18 months before the transplant, so it was important I tried to look ahead to days like my comeback this Saturday. You need those big goals to drive you on.
