Kes was formally diagnoses with a rare blood cancer called Myelo Dysplastic Syndrome in the summer of 2000. Despite the diagnosis she continued to work full time till Sept 2016. Over the years she has had several brushes with death. She has survived sepsis 10 times and at one point ended up in Intensive Care with septic shock. 60% of people die from this but Kes is made of strong stuff and always fights back. 

In Oct 2016 she underwent her biggest battle and had a Bone Marrow Transplant. There were no matches on the registers for her but fortunately her siste Gail proved to be a match and the transplant was able to go ahead. 

Since then Kes has struggled to get on her feet. She has had a serious complication of the transplant called Graft Verses Host Disease. She has this extensively in her liver, gut, mouth, eyes, muscles and joints. This means she has to have specialist treatment for 2 consecutive days every 2 weeks. This is on top of regular check ups at her local hospital and the transplant centre. All this means that she lives in a lot of pain and experiences constant nausea and exhaustion. Sadly it also means that she can’t work. 

Despite this she remains cheerful and enjoys catching up with family and friends. 

Her car and mobility scooter are her lifelines to independence. This weekend a couple of scumbags broke into her car and ransacked it. They damaged the rear view mirror and city breaking housing unit by ripping out the dash cam she had installed. They also stole some money and personal items. 

Kes has Motability Insurance and that doesn’t cover person belongings. She will have to replace her dash cam and other items. She will also need to pay her insurance excess or get the car fixed herself whichever proves cheaper. All of this will run into a few hundred pounds. 

I would like to launch this crowdfunding page so that Kes isn’t out of pocket at this time of year, especially as she is unable to work.