Even as Anderson Mitchell of Chase Village fights for his life, he is also determined to help save the lives of others.

The 42-year-old graphic designer is trying to raise $500,000 quickly to get to Kauvery Hospital, Chennai, India, for a kidney transplant.

The procedure can be done in India affordably, he said. He has raised $100,000 so far.

In 2012, Mitchell, then a capoeira instructor and Latin dancer, was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a rare kidney disease which causes scarring in the glomeruli – the tiny network of blood vessels that are the cleaning units of the kidney.

Nephrologist Dr Shaun Lynch manages Mitchell’s condition.

“He actually predicted every part of my diagnosis. When I was diagnosed, Dr Lynch told me this is not a good diagnosis. He said that things are going to get worse and worse and I am eventually going to need a transplant,” Mitchell said.

He was first put on steroids to slow the disease’s progression, but in four years his kidney function deteriorated

to the point where he needed dialysis.

Mitchell was tired more, and this created a big lifestyle change for him. He used to go to the gym four times a week and did martial arts. Now, he can barely climb a flight of stairs.

He had

haemodialysis,

which filters waste and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys no longer work properly.

But it took a toll on his body and he started to get infections. He was hospitalised for about four months in 2017 because of a major infection that his doctor described as the worst he had ever seen.

“I thought I was going to die." He survived, but had to learn to endure another form of treatment.

"As soon as the infection was fixed, Dr Lynch said he needed to put me on peritoneal dialysis.”

Peritoneal dialysis uses the lining of the abdomen to filter blood. It requires fewer restrictions on diet and fluid intake than haemodialysis.

Mitchell said kidney failure has other effects

which damage organs and cause hypertension and other health problems.

“I think I was very fortunate because my kidney failure did not occur because of diabetes.”

A large number of people with renal failure also suffer from diabetes.

“It made it a little bit harder for them. I had it a little bit easier, in that my diet didn’t go totally haywire and all of that. But I still suffered a lot of the trials that most people who have kidney failure do.

“One of the main ones was a loss of energy.”

This resulted in Mitchell's having to stay home a lot. He

developed a fear of water, because when his catheter got wet, it caused a bacterial infection.

“I went from being an incredibly active person to just being someone who is unable to work the way I used to.

"I used to work eight hours a day. Now if I work about four hours a day, I am usually tired by the end of it.

“I don’t eat the way that I used to. I lost a lot of weight. I went into the hospital at 230 lbs and came out of the hospital at 160 lbs. That was a drastic decrease in weight

and it was mostly muscle."

Hence h