Most people that know me or my family, know that the last 7 years have been a physical and emotional rollercoaster for my mum and everyone close to her.
Just over 7 years ago she became extremely unwell, very quickly and due to no fault of her own found herself in chronic kidney failure almost losing her life on more than one occasion.
She has received fantastic ongoing care from kidney specialists and services at the renal unit st james hospital (Leeds), but this awful condition has ment that she has spent a great deal of the last few years unwell, either in hospital or at home with zero energy and very restricted quality of life.
She received a live donor transplant from my amazing dad which lasted 3 years before beginning to reject and resulting in her back on dialysis 3 times per week, although this kept her alive, she felt constantly unwell as this just drained and really took its toll on her body.
In may 2018 my mum and dad received the call that we realistically thought would never happen, that there was a donor match for her.
A real chance to get my old mum back.
Although it is still early days, she has recovered from surgery amazingly, she has more energy and enthusiasm for life than I have seen in her for the last 7 years.
Kidney disease doesn't just affect the individual, it has a massive impact on the whole family.
Throughout this whole roller coaster my amazing mum has remained positive, even when we have all struggled to do so. She has 7 beautiful grandchildren that i hope she will now get to see grow up thanks to amazing research done by these charities.
My parents are an absolute inspiration to me.
This really is why I want to try my best to raise as much money as possible, for research into this awful disease. To try to prevent other families having to go through this.