My child is called Clara and she is 16 months old. On 31st May she was diagnosed with kidney cancer and has since had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and one of her kidneys removed. Her other kidney is now failing and she is currently staying on Ward 50 at Leeds general infirmary. She will need a transplant but she faces quite a wait before she is able to get her much needed transplant because she has to be 2 years cancer free before she is eligible.

During that time she will spend a lot of time on the ward and will face 5 days a week of dialysis in the hospital. We have already spent nearly half of Clara's short life in hospital. Throughout her stays one of the most important things for us is to ensure that Clara has normality and one of the best ways to do that is through play.

Unfortunately due to a lack of funds the ward 50 play room is lacking the types of toys that Clara and many other children enjoy. Our aim is to raise enough funds to fully revamp the play area and also provide a small pool of funding so that the play team are able to buy items for play activities to help the children who are on this ward as and when they are needed or requested. This would have a massive effect on all the children on this ward, but especially so for Clara who enjoys sensory toys, something the ward is really lacking. Any donations would be absolutely amazing and would help us to achieve our goal!

Our original intention was to revamp the play room and make it a bit more friendly, but just after we set the page up we found out they were rebuilding the hospital so instead all funds will be used to buy exciting play equipment for activities and sessions on ward L50 and the dialysis unit.