The Charity 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. The charity 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.

On September 14th 2015 our lives were shattered by the completely unexpected diagnosis that my husband, Dave had End Stage Renal Failure. His kidneys had completely failed. We had no idea he was so poorly. He had been feeling tired and run down for a few months and we put this down to doing 14 hour days and the fact we had just had a new baby, who was only 8 weeks old. A blood test requested by the doctor because Dave was suffering from excruciating leg cramps. He went for the blood test at 8am and we had a call from the doctor's surgery at midday telling him to go straight to the hospital. A normal person's creatinine score (the level of toxins in your blood) is usually around 100 and Dave's was 1800!  When we arrived at the hospital and he was admitted, the doctor said to us another few days and Dave would have died. He started dialysis later that week via a neck line and later, after contracting sepsis from an infection in this line, he was given a chest line which was less likely to become infected. He had dialysis 3x a week for 4 hours a time which had a massive impact on our family life.  He still managed to work, albeit more flexible hours which is very impressive. For him, the biggest issue was only being allowed to drink 1L of fluid a day, including within food e.g. ice-cream/sauces etc. It was horrible seeing him suffer during the earlier summer months with temperatures rising and he couldn't cool off by drinking. 

Luckily, he only had to endure this for 10 months as in July 2016 his hero brother Graham gave him a kidney. 3 and a half years on, the new kidney is doing really well and Dave is back to full health and we are living a normal life. 

The reason I want to raise money for the NKF is because they help people all over the country going through a similar situation to what we went through 4 years ago. They provide so much support that I feel it's my way of giving back. It will also help to raise awareness of the need to keep your kidneys healthy and one way of doing this is to drink plenty of water. Dave's kidney failure was just 'one of those things'. Nobody knows what caused them to fail- perhaps he was just born with weak kidneys. It certainly wasn't through a lack of water- he is always drinking. However, due to not really knowing the cause, it's a major concern for us both that our beautiful children may have a similar thing happen to them in the future so we are constantly reminding them to drink plenty to keep their kidneys hydrated. As their mum, I need to be a role model in this and I'm too quick to have a cuppa or a can of coke above water, so this is going to be really tricky. Also we are on holiday and I have my birthday in April so I won't be able to drink alcohol! 

Please sponsor me in this challenge! Thank you in advance for your support. 

Emma x