An appeal set up for the Kidney Wales Foundation, in support of a 25-year-old sportsman who is awaiting a transplant, has raised more than £3,000.

Adam Hughes of Tenby, a teaching assistant at the town’s Greenhill School, was diagnosed with kidney failure last April and is now on daily dialysis while waiting for a transplant.

He is among 10,000 people in the UK waiting for a new kidney, and everyone involved in the appeal is encouraging people to join the organ donation list via www.organdonation.nhs.uk or by calling 0300 1232323 (free phone).

Adam said: “Unfortunately, the average time on the transplant list is three years, and there is a great need for more people to become donors.”

His girlfriend, Sabrina Revell and friends Alan Townsend, Steve Handicott and Kathryn Hudson gained sponsorship for running the Tenby 10k and Cardiff half marathon in aid of the Cardiff-based charity, Kidney Care Wales. They are now in training for further runs in 2014

The fund was boosted by £200 from Welsh Cake Ladies of Tenby’s St Johns (correct) Church; a collection of £240 at the Harvest festival of Tenby Infants School, a collection of £103.72 from a jar at the Buccaneer, Tenby;donations from both Tenby and Saundersfoot Rotary Clubs, and a collection made by John Handicott around the Tenby harbour community.

In Carew, where Adam is manager of the village’s football first team, Russell Knox donated £375 received in lieu of 50th birthday presents, while £260 was collected at a New Year’s Day ‘Banish the Turkey’ walk around Carew Mill Pond by Carew footballers, cricketers and others in the community.

Adam’s blog, Life on the Transplant List, can be found on adamjohnhughes.wordpress.com