KIDNEY failure patients can have their lives improved thanks to an invention by a Huddersfield man.

John McCarthy, 27, of Bradley, has created a portable peritoneal dialysis machine.

This means patients with kidney problems will no longer be tied to dialysis at home.

His company and product have been launched thanks to support from Huddersfield businessman Graham Leslie, founder of pharmaceutical company Galpharm.

Peritoneal dialysis is carried out by patients at home, up to four times a day, and involves fluid being inserted in the abdomen which cleans toxins from the blood and kidneys. This fluid has to be removed and replaced regularly by the patient.

The current machinery offered by hospitals is not portable, meaning they have to fit their lives around the sessions at home.

But Mr McCarthy – himself a former kidney failure patient – now has a portable machine on the market that can be taken out in a backpack, allowing people to do dialysis on the move.

He said: “This form of dialysis is 50% cheaper than the kind where you go into hospital.’’

Mr McCarthy has already sold the equipment to several hospitals and it is available for patients to buy privately, direct from his company, Renal Freedom Ltd.

Mr McCarthy has a degree in biological sciences from Manchester Metropolitan University. He met Mr Leslie at a business start-up event 18 months ago and pitched his idea.

Mr Leslie helped get the ‘business’ side of Renal Freedom Ltd up and running. The machine was put through medical tests, patented and trademarked.

But the design work for the product had begun three years earlier after Mr McCarthy was diagnosed with renal failure in 2004.

He said: “The product was born of my own frustration really.

“I received a grant to get the project off the ground and the testing of the machinery took 12 months. Then I met Graham and we have built up the business side.”

Mr McCarthy received a kidney transplant in December and so has never needed to use his machine. But he hopes it will give others a new lease of life.

“Everything has been fantastic so far after the transplant,’’ he said.

“The joke is that I have spent three years designing this for myself and have never had to use the finished article.

“But I believe it will benefit some of the 20,000 others in the UK who use dialysis. The aim is for hospitals to buy it and supply it to patients but those who can afford to can buy it privately.”

The units cost from £249 – £299.

Log onto: www.renalfreedom.com.