Not many people will know that I have personally lived around kidney disease for over 30years knowing first hand the pain and suffering this consumes within the family. How I have had to adapt as a sybling, daughter and mother. Both my brother and mum had kidney disease peter as a baby receiving a transplant at a young age. My mum in her 40's spent many years on haemodialysis 3 times a week, later recieving a kidney transplant herself. Unfortunately both are not with us any more.

Then shaemus came along 9years ago and soon after entered into stage 5 kidney failure at a very young age. He required peritoneal dialysis at home every night for 10-14 hours for 6 years. When his catheter started to fail he moved onto haemodialysis at alderhey children's hospital everyday for 12 months. It just doesn't seem natural sitting by your child suffering needing treatment to keep them alive but also becoming ill from such harsh treatment with blood pressures plummeting to the point of collapsing and having "septic showers". In 2024 he recieved a kidney transplant from his absolutely amazing dad and shaemus' new kidney is doing great.

I would love to raise as much money as possible for NKF as they have been a massive support for us as a family. Which is why I have signed up for the half marathon at alton towers. The NKF have helped share shaemus' story and spread awareness of his rare genetic condition. I always recieve supportive emails and have had financial support when we needed to do lots of travelling to the hospital. Also had the amazing opportunity to share our ideas and created a new tee shirt for the NKF online shop.

The charity supports 3.25 million people with Chronic Kidney Disease (stages 3 to 5) in the UK.