Below is a link to the 10 mile walk for diabetes UK

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Get_involved/Fundraising-events/bridgeschallenge/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwiLDMBRDFARIsACNmiX8blXhtWp2rQDL8AeC2WVgtIXP7ZSpg-o6rkmbCG3SNeO6WoheYatIaAlKSEALw_wcB

This is Melissa,

She was too good for
this world……

She was our daughter, sister and friend and she passed peacefully
on Saturday 6^th May, four days before her 25th birthday. Diabetes
was what took her life. We are going to share her story in hopes that it can help many people as possible, to spread awareness about diabetes.

When she was 15 she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. This
was at a time in her life when she didn’t want to deal with it, so, many young children, teenagers and parents can relate to this. It was a time in her life where she wanted to have fun, with no responsibilities. She didn’t want to check levels at school, she didn’t want to deal with it. All she wanted was to be like everybody else.

Aged 18, Melissa was diagnosed with neuropathy which is a nerve
degeneration complication of diabetes and it only got worse from there. It affected her heart, eyes, bowel and stomach along with legs. Before she was diagnosed, her pain was unbearable, we would stay up with her until she would fall asleep from exhaustion but even then she would get 3 or 4 hours sleep if she was lucky. We didn’t known why she was in so much pain.

It wasn’t long after Melissa was diagnosed that she started
seeing Professor Martin Stevens, who is a specialist in diabetic and neuropathy. He was amazing. He did everything and anything he could, he stopped the pain, any problem, and he sorted it. Whenever there was issues he was always at the end of the phone and booking an appointment to see him at short notice.  She was able to start getting her life on track. She took a course to qualify as a phlebotomist which she passed despite everything. She was the strongest of us all, we were so proud. She was too.

In November of last year Melissa started having blips. She
would stop breathing in her sleep, this was something we couldn’t fix or stop from happening. On 27^th December 2016 she wouldn’t wake up. Paramedics came and rushed her to Solihull hospital where she was diagnosed with double pneumonia and sepsis. She had to be put onto a ventilator to help her breath. She stayed like this for 10 days meaning she missed New Year. Melissa was very ill but we all knew she would make it. Melissa was strong, stubborn and would never give
up. And she did come through. 3 weeks later she was allowed to come home which she was happy about. She hated hospitals, home was where her heart was.

The doctors said it could be a form of sleep apnoea but they
needed to do the sleep study first. It wasn’t till April this year she had the
sleep study, we didn’t get the results until Professor Martin Steven rushed the results. Friday 5^th May the results said Melissa had Obstructive and Central Sleep Apnoea.

On Monday 1^st May 2017 she had a great day, she was trying on clothes, she went shopping with her mum and went to see her Nan.
However at 1:48 Tuesday morning she stopped breathing again and went into cardiac arrest. Our mum had to perform CPR until the paramedics arrived. They managed to get her heart pumping again after 55 minutes at Solihull hospital. Later in the morning they transferred her to Good Hope hospital and they were amazing. All of the nurses were so caring and the doctors did all they could, but we were told she had severe hypoxia because her heart stopped for so long. On Saturday 6^th May we were told that she was brain dead and she would never have survived so we had to make the devastating decision to turn
off the life support.  

We are all so lost without Melissa. How can she not be here
in our lives, this will never feel real to us. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has looked after Melissa over the years, especially Professor Martin Stevens. You are incredible, couldn’t have wished for anyone else to be Melissa’s doctor.

The purpose of sharing Melissa’s story is to make people
aware of diabetes, it’s a terrible illness that doesn’t get enough recognition. Many people don’t know how much is can devastate families or hurt the ones we love if it is not carefully managed.

Your donation would help fund the research that could save
someone else’s life.

Thank you.

Melissa’s Family.­­