Man with end-stage kidney failure suffers home dialysis room hell

Martin Linham, 54, was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure in September 2021.

Other builders have refused to help Martin Linham because of the mess the previous builder left their house in (PA Real Life/Collect)

A man with end-stage kidney failure hired a builder to create an at-home dialysis treatment room, paying him nearly £120,000 in weekly instalments, but he stopped turning up and left the family home “in tatters”.

Martin Linham, 54, a solutions architect, from Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, was diagnosed with igA nephropathy and end-stage kidney failure “out of the blue” in September 2021, so decided to get a two-storey extension in order to have his own bedroom and bathroom downstairs, as well as a dialysis treatment room.

Martin and his wife, Ann Ferguson, 58, appointed a well-reviewed architect who “recommended” a local builder who had a reasonable quote, availability and an impressive portfolio of previous work.

The builder got to work in February 2022 and sent Martin weekly invoices for the work he had done, but over time he turned up less and less until he was only visiting the house once a week.

By Christmas, Martin was still without hot water and electricity or an oven in the kitchen and began to realise how “absolutely ridiculous” the situation was getting.

By March 2023, Martin had paid the builder a total of £118,866.13 despite having “no doors”, being “freezing cold”, and the roof “leaking”, which, Martin said, “obviously made (his) condition worse”.

The builder promised to finish the job in the following six weeks, but “did absolutely nothing”.

Since then, Martin has had to shell out an additional £80,000 to different builders to start making repairs to the house, and he is still without a suitable treatment room.

Martin told PA Real Life: “Since the builder stopped turning up, we’ve had other builders come to our house and turn the job down because they don’t want to handle all of this mess – it was in tatters.

“It’s just the last thing you want when you have end-of-life kidney failure.”

In September 2021, Martin was diagnosed with igA nephropathy which, according to the NHS, is a kidney disorder in which antibodies, called IgA, build up in kidney tissue.

He said: “I was diagnosed literally out of the blue.

“It just came on straightaway with no warning signs – I was told after blood tests by the GP to pack a bag and get to the hospital.

“Within six hours I had a line put in my neck and I was being dialysed because they basically told me if I waited any longer I would have been in a box.

“The diagnosis led to me being diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure too – it was pretty sobering for sure.”

After being diagnosed, Martin was in hospital for more than a year, having dialysis five or six times a week.

In 2022, doctors suggested he could have the treatment at home between three and five times a week.

He said: “I really wanted to be at home more – after dialysis I just feel absolutely wasted.

“I have no energy, my quality of life has just disappeared, I’m constantly itching, and have brain fog.”

Martin and his wife began to look into getting a two-storey extension on their home, so Martin could have his own bathroom and bedroom downstairs, as well as a room for his treatment.

The couple appointed an architect, had plans drawn up, and got planning permission for the project.

They discussed the work with five different builders, all sending in different quotes, but their architect recommended someone else at a cheaper price who could complete the job sooner, so they decided to go with him.

So, from February 2022, the builder issued an invoice once a week for the work done.

Martin said: “We kept paying out money on a weekly basis and the builder sent us emails every week detailing what had been done, and what he will be doing the following week.

“The groundwork started to take shape, they cleared the garden, the brickwork went up, and they demolished the old conservatory.”

But, over time, the builder started to turn up less and less until he was only visiting the house once a week.

Martin said: “I kept on at him permanently. I asked him when will he be doing this and that, and he’d say a day, but would not show up.

“So we started to think ‘OK, this is getting really odd’ – at that point, we had given him around £30,000 for two sets of bifold doors, a composite front door, and five windows.

“But he kept saying he had a problem with the distributor, and we decided we weren’t going to pay any more until something happened.

“So all the labour stopped apart from him turning up occasionally when he needed a bit of extra money.”

By Christmas Eve 2022, Martin and his family still did not have any hot water in the kitchen as well as no electricity and no oven.

He said: “We forced the electrician to come in on Christmas Eve and they put ovens in for us, but at that point we just realised how absolutely ridiculous this all was.”

By March 2023, Martin had paid the builder a total of £118,866.13.

He said: “Around £5,700 was paid to him to pay the electrician, but we found out later that the electrician never got paid.

“The roof was left half done, so it was leaking and it wasn’t watertight, there were no windows, so all the plaster work that they had done inside was completely ruined.

“Downstairs, the main house was OK, but we had openings instead of doors – we went through the winter and it was freezing cold because the rain and the wind would come in.

“Obviously it made my condition worse.”

The builder “swore he would finish” the job in the following six weeks, but he “did absolutely nothing”.

Martin said: “I was in a particularly bad way and my wife was extremely upset – she was having to shoulder a lot of the burden because I wasn’t physically able to do things.

“I physically can’t lift things because I’ve got a central line in my chest.

“So if I pull that I will bleed out – if I damage it, within five minutes I’ll be dead.”

Since then “every single penny” has gone into trying to renovate the house – so far, Martin and his wife have spent an additional £80,000.

Martin said: “We’ve just had the en-suite bathroom put in – it’s not tiled, it isn’t heated and there’s no electrics in it.

“We’ve got my downstairs bedroom in, but it has to be treated for all the mould that was created.

“The hallway, the kitchen, the new big area for the dining room, the porchway, all of that is unfinished, and the outside garden is an absolute tip.”

Martin is also having to double up his home office as his dialysis room.

He explained: “It has to be completely sterile, and, because of all of this going on, it feels impossible to keep it clean because of all the dust.”

Looking back on the experience, Martin does not think there was much he could have done differently.

He said: “We went off recommendations and everything else.

“We think he is doing the same to other people in our area – it’s quite frightening.”