Story
Many of you will know and some may not know my beloved Him Kin Cheong died on 22nd of November 2010. Her funeral service was held yesterday on the 7th December 2010. It was wonderfull to see that so many people attended such a wonderful and fitting service for a truly wonderful mother and caring person, despite the severe snow.! I know from my original comment on FaceBook about her death, that she had many many friends to whom I did not know and I'm sure there are many more. My appoligies for anyone I was'nt able to contact both her friends in the Uk and China and in few other places around the world. May I also thank thoses that sent flowers who were'nt able to travel up to attend the service, I know frances would be truly touch by everyones kindeness and support people have shown to our 3 beautifal children, Mitchel Imogen and Tayla and myself. Her two brothers who were able to attend the service and her other family members in Macua who were unable to attend.
Frances was suffering from a diease that we had never heard of, she was diagnosed with a SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS. whilst waiting for the Biopsy result, Fances was taken into The Royal Lancaster Infirmarily High Dependancy Unit, as she was taken citically ill extremly quickly, there she spent 2 weeks where the staff took wonderfull care of Frances and moved her to another ward for rest before she due to be discharged home in a few days. Due to the natural of treatment to get the diease under control. Done by suppressing the immune system, Within the time that I left frances after visting her and returning home, She had had mutliply organ failure. The doctors and staff had prepared me for the worst, Frances may not make it through the night..!! Indeed she battled through the night and became conscous depsite being weak and still slighty sedated the follow afternoon. with me by her bedside we shared an hour of emotional and heart rendering moment as she scribbled shaky notes of " I love you" and " Shall we get Married" and a few more notes. During this hour the staff had noticed a rash spreading along her thigh area. Surgeons came to look at the rash and explained what they suspected it was and the course of action nessarily.. dead tissue, caused by a flesh eating diease Necrotising Fascitis, recommend treatment was the removal of all the dead tissue and fatty layers until they got to healthy tissue... The risk was that Frances may not survive the surgery due to her being so weak from the previous night's events... but would almost certainly died within 24hrs without surgery.. again very upsetting period of time, Frances had the surgery and they removed a very large area of tissue from the knee up the front and side of the thigh area to just about the the hip area but again Frances battled on with the support of the team at HDU through the night, now with her mum and dad and two of her brother who arrived from China that day, it was a waiting time to see if she could pull through, heavly sedated, with each day and night that passed Frances's Vvital signs gradully started to improve, having days and night where she managed to open her eyes for a few moments to see her family and myself at her bedside. with each week that passed Frances's condition improved, with the odd days of setbacks she was indeed growing stronger. Unable to move her arms through her weak state, we all took turns to rub her hands to warm her up becuase she was cold from low blood pressure and no circulation. Her mum each night <sometimes in early hours 2.30am> would be making Frances soup and each of us would feed her as she could'nt do this her self. Another week or so later, Frances with the help of Pysio would lean to feed herself and talk and translate for me and her family what we needed to know. Me not speaking Chinese and her Family not speaking English , with the exception of a little from her eldest brother Awing this posed some great challenges for us all. With limited resources at the hospital and general limited resources around Lancashire, getting a translator on daily basis was impossible, so thumb upand thumb down hand signals was best I could do to help them understand. With Frances well on the road to recover from her critical spell, her dad and brother returned back to China, and 2 weeks later Mum and other brother would also return. Frances was Indeed now being prepared for home in the next month or so.. but one thing still remains, LUPUS. With this incurable diease Lupus was still in the background, it had been attacking her Heart and her Kidneys, with the added complication of the flesh eating diease, this could only be treated with one type of drug.. but its toxic to the kidneys. The kidneys had ceased to function entirely because of the combination of Lupus and the drugs given to combat the Flesh eating diease. Its was now a waiting game to see if her kidneys could recover from this sustained attack. Frequently Frances would be put on the Kidney filter machine to remove the toxins from her body. With kidneys now becoming the primarly concern, Frances was referred to Preston Hospital for Dialisis, however there were no bed availble, and when there was, Frances would have a bad day and be declared to unfit to travel. during her last 3 weeks at Lancaster her Kidneys had started to show signs of recovery by producing small amount of urine... this was excellent sign and promising to all staff who cared for her.. but still no beds availble.. We would chat on each visit I made about our new house that she had'nt visted yet but seen photos of its poor state it was in, we planned our christmas for the Kids together and Mitchel's birthday present cos Frances was still in hospital... I took each on the kids in on 2 occasions to see her, they'd grown so much in two months, especially Tayla our 7month old. Due to Preston being so busy, Frances was move to another hospital. Here is where I leave my thoughts.. sadly after 4 days in this hopsital she died completly unexpected from what should have been a routine visit to dialisis...I saw her on the sunday fit and well and happy to see me.. I saw her on monday evening critically ill and she died with me by her side.. What caused her unexpected death is still unknown as yet, but over the next few weeks or months I hope to have my answers so I can explain to my kids why their mother died.. BUT one thing is for certain, If LUPUS could be cured then Frances would be here with her family now. Its here where I ask u to consider making a donation in memeory of Frances to help fund research into finding a cure for this cruel and unforgiving diease... please please your donation could make the difference and prevent another family like mine from losing a loved one... Frances always cared for others and here facebook page is littered with thoughts about her.
Thankyou to all those who have supported Frances and me through the months of illness, my mum and family with the kids, My employers, my friends and the amazing staff at Lancaster Intensive Care unit for the dedication to giving the best possible care to Frances. on behalf of Frances, myself and my kids. THANKYOU.
We raised a total of £142.89 from the collection at her service and I have just received another two donations, one from her previous boss's at the Crooklands Hotel.. Many thanks
And to a man and his wife who have shown their continual support to me and my family from the moment she started with her symptoms, through her hospital treatment and through this tragedy, I cant thanku enough. You know who u are.. many many thanks.
Please use this page to make your donation directly to LUPUS UK.
Many many thanks. Martin, Mitchel, Imogen and Tayla.