GREG Barnes, who has died aged 40, fought a long and courageous battle against kidney disease.

He was a familiar face at the Churchill Hospital’s dialysis unit, where he went three times a week for the last decade.

Mr Barnes, pictured, of Faringdon, passed away last month after an ear infection led to osteomyelitis, a bone infection, which affected his skull and spine.

He had suffered kidney problems from the aged of 24 and in 2000 suffered organ failure.

After a failed transplant a year later, Mr Barnes had to make regular trips to the Headington hospital for renal dialysis.

Mr Barnes, who lived in Banbury, Oxford, Witney and Grove, was born on September 30, 1972, in Banbury and attended Chenderit School, Middleton Cheney.

He trained as an apprentice engineer but gave up work in 2001 due to his health problems.

He met future wife Amanda, 32, in 2000 when they were neighbours. They had a son, Leo, now aged seven, and married in 2007.

Mrs Barnes said: “Greg was an amazing person; so kind, caring, loving, and generous and a wonderful father.

“He fought this until the end for Leo and me saying many times if it wasn’t for us he would have stopped treatment a long time ago.”

She said of the unit’s staff: “They are absolutely superb. They would go out of their way to do anything for you.”

Mrs Barnes, who is in in the second year of a health sciences degree with the Open University, said her husband helped her overcome feelings of being “worthless” from a previous relationship.

She added: “He built me up from a nervous wreck and gave me the confidence to go back to doing a degree.”

The impending birth of their son inspired him to recover from an operation to remove a brain blood clot that left him paralysed down his left side.

He died on January 11 and his funeral was held at All Saints’ Church, Faringdon. Donations were invited to the unit.