KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — Malaysia badly needs organ donors, especially for some 20,000 kidney failure patients waiting for transplants, said Eco World Foundation chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

He said the number of Malaysians suffering from chronic kidney diseases had increased 100 per cent over the past decade, with about 7,000 new patients every year.

At the end of 2016, almost 40,000 kidney patients nationwide needed dialysis, Lee said, and advised Malaysians to adopt a healthy lifestyle and conduct regular medical check-ups for early detection of any kidney disease.

Lee handed over two dialysis machines, costing RM45,000 each, to Mawar Hemodialisis in Serdang near here today which is one of 14 branches throughout the country run by the Mawar Medical Centre in Seremban.

The Serdang dialysis centre was opened in 2005, and the 14 branches have around 800 patients, many of them subsidised by Mawar and non-governmental organisations. The youngest patient at the centre is 19.

Lee told reporters later that the foundation had spent RM135,000 on dialysis machines and given them to various centres since last year.

Widow Yap Sok Han, 35, a regular at the centre since last October, said she paid RM90 per session instead of the normal price of RM110.

"I got diagnosed with kidney failure four years ago at a government hospital in Putajaya.  

"I decided to go to the Serdang centre because it is very close to where I live and my father (who is 60) goes there as well,” said Yap, who has three children.

Yap had her own business but has stopped working for the time being. — Bernama