Twenty million more have Chronic Kidney Disease, where patients experience a gradual deterioration of kidney function, the end result of which is kidney failure.
My friend was on dialysis for six years before he got a new kidney. I was on dialysis for eight months. I'm almost not even the typical person who has kidney failure.
I lost my father. He had diabetes and high BP and so he died of kidney failure.
Obviously I tell myself I'm more than happy for everything that's been given to me. But if I wake up one morning and my kidney decides 'I don't fancy it today', I'm back to square one.
If you don't have dialysis, absolutely, you will die. Dialysis is actually keeping me alive.
It was in 2003 that I realised there was no choice but to have dialysis treatment - by the time of the World Cup that year, I could barely walk. A year later, I finally had a kidney transplant.
I was pretty bad. When I first was diagnosed with kidney failure, my function - the function of my kidney was less than 8 percent.
Dialysis does not make patients well. It simply postpones their deaths.
Not wanting to give everyone in your life one of your kidneys is not the same thing as hoping they die of kidney failure.
