Nicola Harper
Nicola's page
Fundraising for Addison's Disease Self-Help Group
Story
I wanted to share our story to show why this charity is truly amazing and how they have supported us.
In 2019 after many bouts of illness, Dylan aged 19 was diagnosed with a rare disease called Addisons. This disease means the body doesn’t produce cortisol, the hormone that produces adrenaline. Only 9000 people in the UK have been diagnosed with this illness, the charity continues to invest in research to understand this disease better.
The main thing I remember from his diagnosis was, ‘this illness is life threatening if not controlled with medication - Dylan’s life will change forever’. As a family we had never heard of this illness and were understandably shocked.
Questions running around and around, what does this mean for Dylan? As we continued through this journey we found that he needs medication 3 times a day to keep him alive! That’s a tough gig for any 19 year old starting their adult life. We were devastated but focused on educating ourselves on this rare disease.
This amazing charity was able to educate us, giving us the information we needed to understand that this illness can be controlled by taking regular medication and understanding your bodies limits. Dylan needs to carry an emergency injection kit everywhere he goes, we all needed to learn how and when he may need to receive this injection, pretty daunting for us all. This charity provided us the correct equipment and advice on how to do this safely. Thankfully we’ve only needed to do this once but we were confident with the education we had received.
Dylan is now 21 and controlling this illness, although tough at times he makes us super proud every single day.
The only thing I can do is put myself out of my comfort zone, push myself harder than I have ever pushed myself before. In hope that this small token can help this amazing charity and support other families like ours.
Every penny counts,
Thank you
Nicola, Nick, Dylan & Alex x
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
In 2019 after many bouts of illness, Dylan aged 19 was diagnosed with a rare disease called Addisons. This disease means the body doesn’t produce cortisol, the hormone that produces adrenaline. Only 9000 people in the UK have been diagnosed with this illness, the charity continues to invest in research to understand this disease better.
The main thing I remember from his diagnosis was, ‘this illness is life threatening if not controlled with medication - Dylan’s life will change forever’. As a family we had never heard of this illness and were understandably shocked.
Questions running around and around, what does this mean for Dylan? As we continued through this journey we found that he needs medication 3 times a day to keep him alive! That’s a tough gig for any 19 year old starting their adult life. We were devastated but focused on educating ourselves on this rare disease.
This amazing charity was able to educate us, giving us the information we needed to understand that this illness can be controlled by taking regular medication and understanding your bodies limits. Dylan needs to carry an emergency injection kit everywhere he goes, we all needed to learn how and when he may need to receive this injection, pretty daunting for us all. This charity provided us the correct equipment and advice on how to do this safely. Thankfully we’ve only needed to do this once but we were confident with the education we had received.
Dylan is now 21 and controlling this illness, although tough at times he makes us super proud every single day.
The only thing I can do is put myself out of my comfort zone, push myself harder than I have ever pushed myself before. In hope that this small token can help this amazing charity and support other families like ours.
Every penny counts,
Thank you
Nicola, Nick, Dylan & Alex x
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
