Charlotte's Story;

Charlotte was born 7/9/15, 5 weeks premature. At only 36 hours old she was separated from her mum who was herself kept in hospital due to complications at birth and transferred to a hospital over 2 hours away.

Charlotte was initially diagnosed with bilateral hydronephrosis and at only 5 days old underwent her first major life saving operation. It was at this point that Charlotte was also diagnosed with pulmonary stenosis, meaning a narrowing of the artery from her heart to her lungs, a condition which has now worsened.

Charlotte was then diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 5, and required urgent dialysis. She has since undergone life saving surgery a further 9 times.

Over the past 16 month Charlotte's condition has literally split and is continuing to split our tiny little family in two. Charlotte has spent the majority of her short life so far in hospital over 2 hours away with her mum Rachel, meaning she is away from her sister Emily who has suspected autism and her Dad John.

Rachel has had to give up work to become Charlotte's full time carer. Charlotte requires life saving medication to be administered every day and can only be fed via a tube into her stomach.

The picture on this page is of Charlotte taken on 31/10/16, 14 month old.

Charlotte attends hospital over 2 hours away for dialysis 3 times a week, every week of every month until she is big enough, strong enough and old enough to have a transplant.

We never fully appreciated how much her condition was going to affect our family. Financially it has hit us extremely hard as we never expected things to be so stressful and severe, as a young family we have financial commitments and debt like most do. Our home requires modifications and improvements to help make it a safe environment for Charlotte to play, grow and develop. We would really appreciate it if anyone could help us give Charlotte the things she needs.