VPaterson

Published at 00:00, Friday, 28 January 2005

A COCKERMOUTH family this week paid tribute to their brave 18-year-old son and said they felt cheated by his death.

Iain Orton, of Holmewood Avenue, who fought back from congenital kidney disease as a youngster and was not initially expected to live more than a few weeks, died on Monday from cancer.

The cancer was discovered in November, after the Cockermouth School sixth-former travelled with his parents, Linda and Garyth, to Swansea University, which he wanted to attend because of the standard of its art and animation courses.

However, he felt unwell, his temperature rose and he was admitted to the West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, when they returned home.

It was feared that a kidney, given by his mum in a transplant operation, was being rejected and he was sent to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, on November 20 - his 18th birthday.

A scan revealed that he had lymphoma - cancer of the lymphatic system. Doctors believe that he may have contracted Epstein Barr virus and that the immune suppressive drugs he took to ensure his kidney was not rejected may have left him unable to fight the virus.

This week, his parents and their 20-year-old daughter, Helen, know that while his death is something from which they will never fully recover, his life brought life to others.

When he was only weeks old, he was found to have nephrotic syndrome and doctors told his parents to take him home, love him and let nature take its course.

He was not expected to live more than four or five weeks with the disease, which sees kidneys ejecting valuable proteins and storing waste instead.

But his parents refused to accept nothing could be done and demanded treatment.

Linda said: “The treatment and the protocols they adopted for Iain as a baby is now used all over the world. Because of Iain, babies are not just being sent home to die now.”

People in Cockermouth and West Cumbria raised funds to buy him a dialysis machine, which he used until he was four, when Linda gave him one of her kidneys.

Since then, Iain has lived an almost normal life, interrupted only by a regime of medication and twice-annual visits to consultants and for blood tests.

In every other way his life was exactly the same as that of his friends.

He loved painting and drawing and his ambition was to be an animator, said his mum.

During the two months that he had cancer, he showed the same courage as he always had - even making it to see his beloved Newcastle United play.

He came home for Christmas but returned to hospital on Boxing Day. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he became paralysed as tumours developed in his brain.

School head Mike Wilde paid tribute to Iain at an assembly on Tuesday.

He said he was quiet and polite - the kind of student who gave Cockermouth School the fine reputation it enjoys.

Those who knew him said he was also funny, clever and very close to friends and family.

His funeral service takes place at Christ Church, Cockermouth, at noon on Monday.

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk