My mummy was diagnosed with polysistic kidney disease kidney failure when I was a little girl but sadly also contracted cancer at the same time before having the chance to benefit from a kidney transplant.

The hereditary disease passed down to both my brothers, David and Andrew. My sister Jane and I were extremely fortunate not to get it and both offered ourselves up for living donor transplant testing.

I was lucky and all the testing was successful meaning I was able to donate a kidney to my brother David which is still going strong almost 9 years later. Jane made it through all the testing up until the final stages but was not given the go ahead after the final test. Andrew moved onto the deceased donor list and to his surprise got a call up within a couple of months for a donor match (waiting lists average 2-3 years) with a successful transplant being completed nearly 4.5 years ago.

After my annual living donor checkup last year revealed my blood pressure was getting too high I decided to take up running again to try to reduce it rather than going onto medication. 1 year on,  having already seen an improvement in BP, I wanted a challenge to spur me on.

Having never ran more than 10k before and having also had a cruciate ligament replacement back in 2002, the half marathon has always been 1 challenge too far but I am determined to make it around even if have to walk, hop or crawl parts of it!

I am forever grateful to the amazing members of the living donor team
and all the renal staff and surgeons in both Guys Hospital London where I did all my tests and where I receive my annual check ups and in Belfast
City Hospital where both transplants took place.

I want to make it through this race in memory of my mummy, who was also being treated in Belfast City renal unit. The half marathon will take place just a few days before what would have been her 80th birthday.

I also want to dedicate it to David, Andrew and Jane (pictured at Andy's wedding in July despite Andy having spent 3 months in hospital with TB earlier in the year) and all our friends and family who supported us throughout especially my husband Yann who had to spend his birthday waiting while David and I were having the transplant operation.

Finally, not to forget the immense gratitude to my Dad who more than stood up to the challenge of looking after our unruly mob in his own unconventional way. It will be 10 years later this year since he passed away and I know both of them will be cheering me along to the finish line from up above.

Funding for research is vital to improve the understanding of kidney disease, its causes, treatment and management and to continue to evolve kidney transplantation, both living and deceased and post-transplantation management.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Any donations very welcome and remember registering for organ donation only takes a few minutes - https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/register-to-donate/.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/kidney-transplant/

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