By Sia Ling Xin

TWO weeks ago, Mr Teo Eng Hong, 51, gave his wife an early birthday present - his kidney.

His wife, Madam Liau Cheok Huey, a housewife who celebrated her 50th birthday yesterday, had been suffering from kidney failure for the past seven years.

Mr Teo, a storekeeper, had planned to donate his kidney to his wife as early as four years ago, as he knew that getting a transplant would be the best treatment for her.

But he had been worried that he would not be able to afford the cost of the transplant and medical follow-up treatment for himself and his wife on his take-home pay of less than $2,000 a month.

Madam Liau had also been afraid of having to go under the knife.

However, the National Kidney Foundation's (NKF) Kidney Live Donor Support Fund made it possible.

Launched at the start of this month, the fund will reimburse living donors such as Mr Teo - its first recipient - for expenses related to the transplant.

These include the cost of insurance and surgery, as well as health checks, laboratory tests, hospitalisation and follow-ups.

The scheme also allows the donor to be reimbursed up to $5,000 for the loss of income as a result of the donation.

The money for reimbursement comes from the $10-million Kidney Live Donor Support Fund, which the NKF maintains and administers.

Hospitals assess an applicant's eligibility. There have been no other applicants so far.

The fund was established after a change to the Human Organ Transplant Act, which allows living donors to be reimbursed for expenses related to the transplant, took effect this month.

The change was made to encourage more living donors to come forward.

The aim of the fund is to throw open the doors to more kidney donors by scrapping financial disincentives, said NKF chairman Gerard Ee.

Mr Teo said yesterday: "This scheme took away the only barrier to the transplant. I was never afraid for my health, only hers."

He was then able to persuade her to look past her fears of surgery by telling her that they had the chance of sharing a better future together if they went for it.

The transplant, which took place at the National University Hospital (NUH), was a success, and Madam Liau's new kidney is functioning perfectly, said the director of the hospital's adult kidney-transplant programme, Professor A. Vathsala.

In the first 11 months of this year, NUH surgeons performed 36 kidney transplants, 17 from living donors.

Mr Teo was discharged three days after the transplant, and his wife after a week.

Madam Liau can apply for financial aid from NUH for follow- up care, if necessary.

She said: "I don't have to go through dialysis any more. I feel so much freer and in control."

She had been on peritonea dialysis for the last four years, which meant that she had to hook herself up to a dialysis machine in her home every night.

She said: "I have to thank my husband for all this. He has always taken good care of me."

The couple, who have been married for 13 years, were penpals who dated for more than 10 years before getting married, as Mr Teo wanted to make sure that he could support his wife financially before tying the knot.

"I want her to live as best as she can as I love her," he said.

"Happy 50th Birthday."

lingxin@sph.com.sg

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