“I was diagnosed with Henoch Schonlein Purpura (HSP) after a rash appeared on my legs in September 1998 aged 12. HSP affected my whole body particularly my stomach and joints – I couldn’t walk for months and was bed bound as well as the constant stomach pain, sickness and swelling in my ankles and legs. I lost lots of weight and went down to 5 stone. I was very sick and in January 1999 I was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London with complete kidney failure. I had to take lots of medication and had 10 sessions of plasma exchange as well as dialysis. I dialysed and had plasma exchange through a tube placed in my groin which wasn’t very pleasant at all. Due to being so poorly I was booked into theate to have a more permanent access for dialysis put in so that I could continue to have dialysis 3 times a week. However, through the amazing work and dedication of the doctors and nurses, they managed to get my kidneys working back up to around 40%. They were amazed, as were we.
I had regular trips down to London to see the doctors to check how I was doing and sadly had to be referred back up to my local hospital when I was 17. I felt very safe at Great Ormond Street and to leave felt very strange and scary. I missed the whole of year 8 due to being poorly, but went on to complete my GCSEs, A levels and go on to University in Sheffield where I completed a degree in Early Childhood studies. I loved being at uni and tried to get on with life as normal although this was hard at times due to my kidneys not working properly and needing a lot of sleep and a couple of times my Dad had to drive up to bring me home when I wasn’t well. I went on to work full time in a Sure Start Children’s Centre in April 2008, working there for nearly 10 years.
My kidney function was gradually coming down over these years and I had to massively cut back my hours at the children’s centre as I couldn’t cope at all and missed out on so much socially. In April 2012 my Mum, Dad and I went to Leicester General Hospital and both my Mum and Dad were tested to see if they were a match to be able to donate to me. The results came back that they were both an equal match to me so we had the hard decision of deciding who was going to go through all the testing with the view to donating to me. After much talking (it was an unbelievably hard decision to make) my Dad really wanted to go ahead with this.
For the next year he went through numerous tests to ensure that he was fit and healthy to donate to me. Unfortunately I had to begin emergency dialysis in February 2013 as my kidney function went down to 4% and my Dad was still going through all of the tests.
After a tough year of lots of tests my Dad got the go ahead to be a donor in April 2013 and I received his kidney on 9th May 2013. This day was one of the hardest of my life and I’m sure my Mum, Dad and my partner, now husband Luke, would say the same. The thought of your loved one being in theatre and having an operation that they didn’t need but they’re doing it to give me a better chance of life is indescribable. The worry was immense.
My Dad went down for surgery at around 8am and the wait for the surgeon – Professor Mike Nicholson – to come up and tell us that he was ok was just awful. Dad always jokes that things took a bit longer because he thought they were after his wallet!! I went down for surgery at 2pm and although I had a bit of a scare the next day (I had to go back to theatre due to a bleed near the kidney and consequently ended up in intensive care) we both made a good recovery. My Dad was in hospital for 5 days and I was in for 9 days (the 2nd op set me back a day or two).
I was able to return to work in October 2013 and gradually increased my hours which was wonderful. Luke and I got engaged in Venice in June 2016 and got married in August 2017. As you can imagine it was a very emotional day….particularly the ‘Father of the Bride’ speech.
Before the transplant I didn’t actually realise how poorly I had become and was quite stubborn about the whole thing. I would always say I was fine but I would get out of breath just sitting and drying my hair or going for a walk. I think when you live with a chronic illness you kind of get used to the symptoms in a strange way but they can be incredibly debilitating. I’m able to enjoy life to the full now and have met so many amazing and inspiring people throughout my transplant journey, many of whom I’m so lucky to call friends.
My fathers courageous act (he didn’t even like having a blood test before donating to me) has enabled me to go on and live my life, it is truly amazing the difference it has made. 7 weeks ago my husband and I were blessed to welcome our beautiful little girl into the world. We feel extremely grateful and thankful and I owe our biggest ever blessing to my wonderful dad. Thank you Dad 
.”