Natalie Ramirez was one of my best friends, we met at school in 1997, and to say that she was a tour de force is an understatement, she was loud, gregarious, funny, COLOMBIAN and very proud of it, generous, patient, and so strong, but we never knew how strong until she became unwell.

In 2009 I got married, and at my hen do, something about Natalie seemed different, she looked like she’d lost weight, but it didn’t suit her. It transpired that she had been diagnosed with Scleroderma, and a really aggressive strain of the condition.

Over the next 4 years she fought incredibly hard and never once complained, she was restricted by what she could do in so many ways, not least by the number of times she had to be in hospital and then by the physical changes the condition ravaged on her body.

On 24/11/2013 I got a phone call in the evening - “Natalie has had a heart attack”. Simple, I thought, where is she, I’ll go and visit. “No, this time she hasn’t made it”. Those words will never leave me. We said goodbye to Natalie on 9/12/23. She was 27. At the funeral her amazing family were incredible; supportive, kind, faithful and encouraging of all of us in our grief and wanting to hear stories of the Natalie we all knew and loved. This year marks 10 years since we lost her, and the grief is still there, and I know it must be so hard for her family seeing our group going on to do the things Natalie didn’t have a chance to do.

The disease is still ravaging others, and is still needing so many funds for research, any pennies you can donate towards their cause will benefit the research and development of treatments for current and future patients.

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