Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Our beautiful Lauren, had the rare disease Idiopathic Arterial Pulmonary Hypertension (IAPH). 

I am raising money in her memory for St. Catherine’s Hospice who helped not only Lauren but her whole family and network of friends when they needed it most. Alongside Diane (Lauren’s Mum and my dearest friend) I will be trekking the Great Wall of China next May and need to raise at least £3300. 

I am terrified as I quote “the terrain is hilly and undulating with steep sections to contend with, both on and off the Wall” and having signed up already I have only now discovered the extent of the training involved! We shall be hiking over two of the more remote and untouched parts of the wall; Simatai and Gubeikou including clambering over “the wild wall” which is crumbling and uneven after years of standing tall against the wilderness!!!

I promise I will have earned every penny of your generosity!

I shall be hoping to add to the target myself by raising extra money doing smaller tasks whilst trying to get my fitness levels up but please spur me on by sponsoring me now. 

Lauren fought IAPH with everything she had for a very long time and although, on the heart and transplant list, no suitable donor was found. With the drugs she was being given becoming progressively less effective and the pain she was in becoming more and more unbearable, Lauren took a very brave view on the life she had left and decided instead to receive the palliative care given by the staff and volunteers at St. Catherine’s Hospice.

Lauren passed away last August, a day before her 31st birthday. 

St. Catherine’s is a beautiful place and Lauren features on their website as she wrote about the wonderful treatment she was receiving there. You can read it here should you wish to. 

https://www.stch.org.uk/our-s…/patient-stories/lauren-story/

Idiopathic Arterial Pulmonary Hypertension (IAPH) is where the pulmonary blood vessels become restricted. The right side of the heart compensates by forcing blood through the small arteries and arterioles of the lungs. Over time IPAH leads to right-sided heart failure and death.

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