Boy, 4, set to receive kidney from his gran enabling him to eat forbidden plate of chips

A boy of four who can only eat one chip a month because of a kidney condition is set to have his life transformed after his grandma offered to undergo a transplant operation.

Stevie Plavecz- Maples, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, has been battling chronic kidney disease since birth. This has meant him having dialysis for 10 hours, six nights a week to keep his small kidney functioning.


Up to now he has been restricted to eating one chip per month because of his illness as his body cannot process the potassium in potatoes.

Furthermore, he cannot take a bath or go swimming because he has a catheter.

He received a transplant in January of last year but unfortunately it was rejected by his body.


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But all this is about to change as test results from a donor clinic show that Stevie’s grandmother Tracy Plavecz, 48, is a potential transplant match.

The life-changing operation is due to take place at Nottingham Hospital in May just in time for Stevie to start school in September.


Tracy said she couldn’t wait to give her grandson a “normal childhood”.

She added: “I’m not thinking about myself, I'm doing it for him. Every child deserves to have a happy, free childhood and I want that more than anything for Stevie.”

“He is such a happy child you would never know how ill he is. It will completely change his life and make us all so happy.”

Mother Gemma, 28, told the Peterborough Evening Telegraph:  “He says to me he can’t wait to go swimming or have a bath, or even eat the chips in McDonalds. He can’t do any of that because of his tubes.”

After the May operation, Stevie is likely to undergo several further kidney transplants throughout his life as the average transplant lasts between 10 and 15 years.