An appeal has been launched to find a donor match for an urgent transplant needed by a Redbridge boy suffering chronic kidney failure.

Doctors first diagnosed Pablo Amaral-Chiostergi when his mother Maria Amaral was just four months pregnant with him.

She said she could “hardly sleep because [I] was so scared that [Pablo’s] heart would stop while [I] was asleep.”

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Born with this debilitating condition, Pablo also had to face the tragedy of his father dying from liver cancer when he was only two years old.

Pablo explained how the loss of his father drastically affected his confidence: “I went from an extrovert[ed], bubbly boy always smiling into a quiet and more reserved person. However, I did not lose my joy for living.”

Pablo has dialysis treatments three times a day and needs to take 17 tablets daily.

He has previously spent time with family in Portugal and Italy, learning to swim and excelling in karate.

He said: “A new kidney would help me to return to the happy, sociable, creative boy I have been who has been committed to living a fun, productive and fulfilling life despite kidney disease.”

Pablo is one of many people of mixed heritage who have had to face a three-year wait to find a matching donor, according to African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust Charity (ACLT).

Sabrina Jarrett, national development manager at ACLT, said: “Pablo needs a kidney, and his ethnicity should not be a factor in him receiving one."

Pablo is blood group O and to become a potential donor, go to https://aclt.org/donate/organ-donation/ and to find out more visit https://aclt.org/pablo/.