Whilst most of you knew our precious dad John, others may not have had to pleasure to meet his unique personality.

Sadly dad suffered with type 1 diabetes, in November 2015 after feeling slightly under the weather dad went to the doctors for a routine blood test, in the early hours of the morning the doctor was knocking at his house advising him he requires to go to A&E urgently. On doing so, they found dads potassium levels were extremely high. After 24-48 hours of doing many tests and scans, dad was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure. He was advised he would require dialysis for 6 hours, 3 times a week - it was at this point in dads mind his life had ended, we all tried to make him see hope, confidence and a life beyond the diagnosis but little did we know for him this was just the start of an emotional journey.

After this, dad was released for Christmas on the advice that a potassium free diet is required, daily liquid limitations and dialysis three times a week. Slowly but surely dads health started to rapidly deteriorate, he was in and out of Northampton and Kettering general, from kidney and diabetic wards to ITU, he became a regular.

In April 2017 dad was found unconscious at home after failing to attend required dialysis, this was out of character for dad as much as he hated, it controlled his life and he knew he had to do it. So, we finally managed to locate a neighbour who was able to gain access. Dad was unconscious, later to be told he was an hour away from death as his potassium levels were high, so high it could have cause a cardiac arrest. Dad was admitted ITU and sedated, they kept trying to wake him, but he wasn’t responding. We was called and advised to come in, we were all advised that if he didn’t wake up the following day there was high possibility he could require a lung Tracheostomy or be possibly brain damaged and to consider what dad would have wanted. The next day come dad thankful finally came round from sedation, although still very confused and agitated he was operating with machines. Dad had a few weeks in internsive care and was later released to the specialist ward at Northampton hospital, they released him within 3 days of being in his care.

48 hours later, dad again didn’t attend regular dialysis. He was found very unwell again, he was back in ITU again with high potassium, sugar and blood levels. This was the day dad didn’t return home. The hospital and welfare decided that dad was not able to care for himself, not because he was neglecting himself or not managing his condition correctly but because the chronic kidney failure and diabetes were simply fighting one another causing levels to rapidly deteriorate with high risks, at this point they deemed that Dad requires full-time medical assistance. They advised dad would require to go into a care home, as a majority of you would know dad at 53 in his mind was not mentally ready for this, dad was refusing to go so unfortunately under the heathy and safety remained in hospital for the duration of months.

On Sunday 10th of December we received a call to advise dad had contacted a chest infection and pneumonia, his breathing deteriorated quite badly so he required oxygen and a ventilator so was admitted onto ITU. Dad was on antibiotics and was showing signs of improvement, but as the days passed his neurology and conscious levels started to deteriorate, due to this they decided to carry out a CT scan. On the 21st December, we received a call to advise they have the results from the scan and would require us to come in to discuss treatment options. We was advised dad had suffered a bleed on the brain, the doctors are unsure of how the next two weeks would turn out as:

-they had to turn off the blood clot blocker button from dialysis due to the bleed, they at this point their unsure weather dialysis will then be successful or not. If yes great, if not his potassium levels could deteriorate causing a cardiac arrest.

-the bleed could worsen

-the bleed could turn to a clot a cause pressure on the brain; causing brain damage.

On the 22nd December dad was due to have dialysis but the doctors tried to hold out to see how he body was coping, so decided to do dialysis on the 23rd. In the last hour of dialysis dad deteriorated requiring them to sedate him, whilst he was sedated they decided to do another CT scan to check the bleed which showed no change. On the 24th they tried to wake dad, unfortunately dad was unresponsive. As a precaution due to dads conscious levels they decided to do another scan, at this point our worst nightmares were confirmed the bleed had worsened and the brain had swelled, causing the starvation of blood supply at this point they believed dad to have brain damage.

After further tests at 7:30pm on the 24/12/2017 we were advised dad had sadly passed away due to brain stem death. Although this is the worst possible news we could ever imagine, dad is out of pain and suffering and living a life in four walls. Later I had an awful but yet heartfelt call to advise dad had registered on the organ doner list in 2003 and 2011 and they with our consent with search the transplant register for a match on dads heart, liver and bowel. Late on Christmas Day, we received a call to advise they had succefully transplanted the liver 🙏🏽

Now, we have the horrid ordeal of organising a loving son, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend of many the best send off he deserves. As I’m sure many of you could appreciate dad was unable to work for the past two years, due to his physical health and at present we are unaware of dads finances. However, we do need to lay dad to rest like he deserves, and all funeral costs need to be paid before the funeral commences. As most of you know, dad was living in Northampton but his one wish throughout was to come back to live in Watford, this isn’t cheap and would be our final wish to bring our dad back to Watford for his final send off where he can finally lay at peace.

We would kindly appreciate any donations, no matter how little or small they may seem all really would be muchly appreciated to help give our dad the send off he deserves.

A caring, loving man lost his fight at 53 years too young - to a silent disease leaving behind children, grandchildren, sisters and friends-

The funeral of John Halward will take place on Wednesday 17th January 2018 at 2:40pm

West Herts Crematorium

High Elms Lane

Garston

Watford

Hertfordshire

WD25 0JS

3:30pm - We will then continue on to the wake, where we will toast a glass or two in memory of dad:

The Gate

Station Road

Bricket Wood

St. Albans

AL2 3PW

ALL ARE TRULY WELCOME-

We would be honoured to see as many faces as possible. Please if anybody is able to pass onto anybody that is not on Facebook and knows dad, it’d be muchly appreciate.