In 2019 my family came to the realisation that my mother was very close to either needing to live on dialysis or receive a new kidney by transplant. Being South East Asian meant that waiting on the deceased donor list in the UK could take years to get a strong match donor so the family decided to get tested to be a donor. 

With COVID in 2020, amongst many other delays, the live donor transplant took place on 28th of April 2021. Both operations went smoothly - my old kidney is doing well in my mother's body! 

Having taken up running in lockdown and to keep me motivated in my recovery I've decided to sign up for my first running event, the Hackney Half Marathon, with a goal of running a time of 1hr 24 mins. That's running quicker than 4 mins/km for the length of 21.1km (probably faster than "your mate who's into running" 5k pace). 

I'll be fundraising and running in support of The National Kidney Federation. The NKF charity is run by kidney patients for kidney patients. The charity supports two million people with Chronic Kidney Disease and 60,000 patients who have end stage kidney failure. NKF also supports Dialysis and Transplanted patients and their carers. The NKF offers a National Kidney Patients Helpline 0845 601 02 09 offering medical information leaflets, help and advice - with trained staff answering around 200 calls a week.