He didn't think it mattered at the time, but simply skipping the odd meal here and there has had a devastating impact on Jermaine Smith's life.

In denial as a young diabetic, Mr. Smith failed to follow doctor's orders about eating the right foods at the right time, measuring his blood sugar levels and taking insulin when he should.

Unfortunately, he is now paying for his complacency three times a week — every time he visits the Beresford Swan Dialysis Unit for three hours of painful dialysis treatment.

As Mr. Smith's kidney is out of order, he has to put needles into his vessels and filter his blood through a machine instead.

"Sometimes the machine can drain you," he said. "Sometimes you feel perfectly fine when you come off, sometimes you suffer from cramps. All of your blood is going out of you and into a machine to be filtered. It's always a rocky road.

"Each person's pain restriction is different. I'm kind of used to it. You have a local anaesthetic with a tiny needle and that's actually the bit that hurts the most."

Mr. Smith, from Pembroke, now 36, was born with Type One diabetes, but it did not surface until he was 11.

"When I first started off as a diabetic, it was really, really hard and rough for me and my family because at 11 you can't have all the goodies that come with this age," he said.

"I was in denial. Maybe skip a meal, take my meals not on time, eat the wrong things.

"It's vital to keep control, test your blood sugars. I didn't, so I've been a dialysis patient for eight years."

Asked what advice he would have for others, Mr. Smith replied: "Follow your doctor's orders. Definitely test as much as possible, and take all the medication.

"Being in the physical condition I'm in now, on the machine three times a week, it's a life altering thing. If I don't go again, it would be a matter of days before I perish.

"Don't take the road I did. You have to watch what you eat. The last thing you want is to be on any type of machine in order to live."