SINGAPORE – When former national bowler Carl de Vries was diagnosed with kidney disease and needed a transplant, his brother Marc did not hesitate to offer him one of his.

Mr Marc de Vries, 45, who is also a former national bowler, said: “He’s family. He’s my brother. I didn’t think of any other thing except to help save him.”

Now, about a year after the procedure, his brother Carl, 42, has recovered well enough to compete in April’s Singapore Transplant Games, where those who have had an organ transplant come together to compete in various sports.

The brothers’ journey from sharing their love of sports to sharing a kidney transplant experience was an unexpected one.

Carl, who runs a gym and is married with no children, had always led a very active life, playing various racket games, such as tennis and badminton, three times a week and bowling once a week. He was a gold medallist at the 2006 Asian Bowling Championships.

In 2018, he underwent a routine health check and found that he had autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. The genetic disease is one where multiple cysts form in the kidneys, leading to kidney damage and failure.

Carl, the second of three children, said: “I was very shocked, as there is no history of kidney failure in my family.”

There were no symptoms that made him think he was ill in the beginning. But life became more taxing as his kidney function deteriorated over time.

In the two years before he had the transplant in January 2024, he felt tired all the time.

Climbing the overhead bridge felt like a 100m sprint, and he had to take a break after playing tennis for 10 minutes, whereas, in the past, he could go on for at least an hour.

Dr Hersharan Kaur Sran, medical director of the Adult Kidney Transplantation Programme at the National University Centre for Organ Transplantation (Nucot), said that when she first saw Carl in 2023, he had advanced chronic kidney disease, which is just one stage before kidney failure.

The centre is at the National University Hospital (NUH).

Dr Hersharan suggested that he undergo a pre-emptive kidney transplant, where the transplant is done before the patient starts dialysis to remove the extra fluid and waste from the body when the kidneys fail.

She said a pre-emptive kidney transplant offers patients the best outcomes, as the patients and their kidneys survive the longest period of time, compared with transplants done after the patient has been on dia...