AFTER almost two years on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, a Newport teenager is balancing her life-saving dialysis around the pressures of her exams.

Sahibaa Ali is in the middle of sitting her GCSE exams but she has a special timetable to fit around the dialysis she has three times a week Sahibaa, of Archibald Street, Lliswerry, only has one kidney which does not work properly.

She has had dialysis since May 2007 and went on the transplant list in July 2008 as many of her family were unable to donate because of diabetes.

Sahibaa, 16, goes to the University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for three hours of dialysis.

She said: “It does get frustrating. I want to get back to normal. I’d love to go on holiday and go out with my friends more often in the school holidays.”

The teenager is studying six subjects; English, Maths, Science, Welsh, IT and Religious Studies and will be sitting 11 papers which had to be arranged for morning sessions on the days she has dialysis.

She has sat two exams and will finish on June 28.

Sahibaa intends to stay at Lliswerry High School and study BTECs in media, ICT, and travel and tourism at its sixth form and would like to work in a bank after finishing her studies.

Sahibaa will move from the Great Ormond Street transplant list to the University of Wales, Cardiff, list making things easier for when she has the operation and will appear on a new TV advert campaign by The Kidney Wales Foundation on ITV and S4C over the next few months.

According to the charity, black and Asian people typically have to wait three times as long for a transplant as white people because kidney matches tend to be better from people from the same ethnic group but there is a shortage of donors from these groups.

For more information, see www.organdonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 123 23 23.