Join me for my celebration of life Coffee Morning raising vital funds for Kidney Research UK.

When: Saturday 28th June 2025 10am - 12pm

Where: Oakham Congregational Church, High Street. Oakham.

What: Coffee, cake and conversation. £1,000 worth of raffle prizes inc:

Why: Raising £500 for charity will bring my total fundraising total to date to £20,000 This is one of four items on my bucket list of wishes to complete.

I was born with kidney disease, it was misdiagnosed for years, even though the symptoms were there. I was eventually diagnosed with chronic kidney disease when I was 8 years old with a genetic condition called Nephronophthisis. My biggest challenge was pronouncing that!

Even with lots of medication, lifestyle changes and following a very strict renal diet including a fluid restriction, all of which I took part in the daily management of, my health continued to decline.

At 11 years old, I went into kidney failure. I spent my last week of primary school life in hospital and my parents were told that I needed an urgent transplant.

In December 2021 my dialysis journey started, and I was told on Christmas Eve that I had been activated on the NHS transplant list. I received Peritoneal Dialysis every night at home for 10 to 12 hours for 18 months, during that time I had an infection called peritonitis three times. In early 2023 Peritoneal dialysis was failing, and the decision was made that I should move onto Haemodialysis.

Devastatingly after just three months of being on haemodialysis I became very poorly again with yet another life threatening extremely rare condition called Autoimmune Haemolytic Anaemia. I was deemed too poorly to receive a transplant and suspended from the NHS Transplant list.

However, with intensive medical intervention from my amazing renal team, the condition was brought under control. I went into remission, and I was reactivated on the list.

The new condition made dialysis a bit of a nightmare and I no longer felt the true benefits of it; other than the fact it was keeping me alive.

And that’s the point. That’s what dialysis does, without it I would have been dead within two weeks

I had long been told that the perfect kidney didn’t exist, and after 3 years of waiting I'd given up on miracles.

But then, with one phone call my life changed. The perfect kidney was offered to me through the kidney allocation scheme and I recently received the gift of life, a kidney transplant, the miracle kidney I was told didn’t exist.

At the point of receiving my transplant I had been on the transplant list for 3 years, 3 months and 21 days. Taking into account 18 months of Peritoneal dialysis and 21 months of home haemodialysis in total I endured over 7,500 hours of life sustaining dialysis.

I’m one of the lucky ones though, I’ve been handed back my childhood, I can live my life away from dialysis and can start to explore what my new life looks like. I don’t know how long this will last because a transplant isn’t a cure, I’ll always live with kidney disease, and I know that one day I’ll have to face a life on dialysis again.

I know many other children will not get this opportunity and will lose their fight against kidney disease and that is why raising vital funds for research is so important to me, it will enable more investment and a brighter future for others who are living their lives on dialysis and who are living in fear of the future.

I hope you are able to join me on Saturday 28th June for Coffee (or tea) cake and conversation. If you are unable to but would still like to make a donation please accept my sincere thanks for supporting me.

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