Daughter loses 70 pounds in 16 months to donate life-saving kidney to father

'It was 9 in the morning when I got the call, and the first thing they said was ‘You are a perfect match with your father. You are a perfect match''

Ms Muhammad embarked on a a 'wellness journey' to save her father's life (Screenshot of Fox 5 Atlanta)

A woman who was told that her body mass index (BMI) her body was too high for organ donation, spent the last 16 months losing 5st so she could give her kidney to her father.

Dawn Muhammad's father Lucious Daniels was diagnosed with stage four kidney failure in August 2016. Since then, he has been undergoing dialysis in order to stay alive.

Doctors told Ms Muhammad that her blood type might make her a match, but her BMI was too high, so Mr Daniels was added to the kidney transplant donor list.

“Being on dialysis was something I had to do in order to survive. I didn’t have a choice,” the 74-year-old said.

Not to be put off, Ms Muhammad embarked on a “wellness journey" of her own, hiring a personal trainer and changing her eating habits.

Gradually the pounds fell off the wife and mother of two from Atlanta, Georgia.

A few weeks ago, doctors ruled she was healthy enough to donate a kidney to her father.

“I’m very thankful to be able to help my father have normalcy in his life,” Ms Muhammad told the Fox5 news channel.

“I was at work and I received that phone call. It was 9 in the morning when I got the call, and the first thing they said was ‘You are a perfect match with your father. You are a perfect match”.

An average of 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month in the US, and 13 people die each day waiting for a life-saving transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

That foundation estimates that the average wait time for an individual to receive their first kidney transplant is 3.6 years, but that time could vary depending on compatibility, availability of organs for transplant, and the health of the individual seeking a new kidney.