IN the wake of a year-long battle with cancer, an Abergavenny man will finally release a charity song in honour of the organ donor who enabled him to have a lifesaving kidney transplant in 1977.

Paul Silcox is not a man to take his health for granted. This time last year the 58-year-old was busy putting the finishing touches to a song which was to be a heartfelt thank-you to his own personal kidney donor - a 12-year-old boy who had been knocked off his bike by a car.

Yet just as the song which was to raise funds for Kidney Research UK was about to be recorded, disaster struck when the father-of-three was diagnosed with lymphoma.

Paul explained, "I had been feeling desperately ill for quite a time. I was struggling with pneumonia and had lost two and a half stone. Initially the doctors told me I had lung cancer, and as you can imagine upon hearing that everything went dark and my world just seemed to screech to a grinding halt."

Upon further consultations and scans, the initial diagnosis was proved wrong and Paul was told that he didn't have lung cancer but lymphoma.

"Although I was very relieved not to have lung cancer, I was still very worried," said Paul. "Especially as I was told that I had to stop taking the immune suppressors which I had been taking since my transplant, because these drugs were preventing my body from fighting off the tumours.

"The doctor pretty much told me, 'Your kidney is secondary. These tumours will kill you very quickly if we do not act now.'"

Paul stopped taking the medication which had been part and parcel of his daily life for the last 35 years and to his shock, not only did his health start to improve, but that he actually began to feel better than he had in years.

"It was a very rough road to recovery at first," revealed Paul. "The lymphoma was very aggressive and I was quite literally on my out of action for a long time. I had to sleep sitting up for months, which was very unpleasant, but bit by bit and slowly but surely I felt I had been given yet another new lease of life.

"Now of course, although I still struggle with my breathing, I'm feeling very good and positive overall and was delighted to be able to finally record the Gift of Life.

The Gift of Life is a song composed by Christopher Langworthy, with lyrics by Paul's wife Claire, and sung by the Brecon Voice Choir.

The piece aims to encapsulate Paul's bittersweet feelings of gratitude and sadness, when after 34 years of wondering he found out that his organ donor was actually a 12-year-old boy who had been tragically killed in a car accident.

Paul told the Chronicle, "I was shell-shocked when I found out where my kidney had actually come from. I tried to write to the mother of the donor, but finding the right words, proved nigh on impossible. I mean, where do you start? And would I just be reopening old wounds and doing more harm than good by contacting my donor's family?"

Eventually the medium of verse and music was felt by Paul to be the best thank-you he could offer, not only to his own donor and his family, but families and friends of donors everywhere.

Paul added, "Thanking the donors was a big part of why we're doing this song, but raising money for Kidney Research UK is equally important.

"Current statistics reveal that in the UK three million people are affected by kidney disease and although 8,000 are waiting for a transplant, only about 2,500 people will receive one."

Last Saturday, Paul, the Brecon Voice Choir, which includes Paul's 13-year-old son Will Wilcox, alongside pianist Chris Langworthy, and Paul's daughter Olivia Silcox, recorded five tracks at Shabbey Road Studios in Caerphilly.

Paul said, "The recording went better than we imagined. The five song CD will hopefully be released on March 8, which is World Kidney Day.

"Songs on the CD include the Brecon voice Choir singing the title track and versions of Bread of Heaven and Calon Lan.

"There is also a stunning instrumental by Chris called Immortality and Olivia does an acoustic take on the Gift of Life song, which adds a completely different element to it and quite literally left everyone in the studio speechless."

The song will get its first public airing on BBC Wales's Jamie and Lousie shown on March 5, and on August 23 Paul and the Brecon Male Voice Choir will preform the Gift of Life at the opening of this year's Transplant Games at Rochester Cathedral.

Paul said, "It will be very emotional singing at the Games because I competed in the first ever Games held in Portsmouth in 1978, and over the next 17 years won 40 medals.

"An accomplishment that never would have been possible, if not for the incredible people who are so brave and selfless in letting their loss bring new hope to others by bequeathing to them the most precious gift of all - the Gift of Life."

The Gift of Life is priced at £5 and will be available to buy at Abergavenny Music from next month onwards. Alternately you can send all enquiries to [email protected]">[email protected]