Little Alfie Armstrong has been in and out of hospital for most of his life as he suffers from kidney failure.

The four-year-old has had the condition since birth and has been on dialysis since he was five months old.

Six weeks ago Alfie, of Harptree Drive, Walderslade, was rushed into hospital with septicaemia.

He usually has haemodialysis, where a machine cleans his blood instead of his damaged kidneys, but the treatment isn’t working.

Alfie, a St Thomas More RC Primary School pupil, was taken to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and has not been able to go home since.

He has had five operations in six weeks as doctors have tried to insert dialysis tubes into his stomach.

Last week Alfie had another operation to insert a temporary tube into his stomach but doctors found that he also had severe peritonitis, an infection in his stomach.

He now has a temporary tube in his groin.

Alfie was on the organ donation list but as he is so unwell, his name was taken off.

His desperate grandparents, Christine and William, are now appealing for a live donor to donate a kidney to Alfie, to save his life.

Mrs Armstrong, 54, said: “Doctors have found a 7cm blood clot in the main artery into his heart so he can’t have blood dialysis.

“He’s on warfarin and other blood thinners but it’s too dangerous to do anything else with the blood clot.”

The 54-year-old said: “He’s desperate for a kidney. The doctors are running out of options.

"He has been on the donor waiting list since October 2015 - up until he went into hospital six weeks ago.

"The doctors are running out of options...he hasn't got a chance at the moment" - Christine Armstrong

"Alfie had to be taken off because he wasn’t well enough.

“It would mean the world to him if someone came forward.

“Alfie would get his life back, he could start going back to school. It would save his life.

"He hasn’t got a chance at the moment.”

Mrs Armstrong has been staying up in London with Alfie while his sister, Millie, 12, and Mr Armstrong, 67, visit when they can.

A potential donor needs to be aged 18 and over and will first be asked to have a blood test, to see if their blood is compatible with Alfie’s.

But the assessment procedure can take anything from three to 18 months and involves a series of blood tests, scans and physical and psychological assessments.

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