Katie Pearson is fundraising
Donate to SRUK in memory of Kathleen x
Raising money and awareness in memory of Kathleen Ann Connor-Hayward
23rd November 1950 - 17th October 2025
Want to join me in making a difference? I’m raising money in memory of my lovely Mum to benefit Scleroderma & Raynaud's UK, and any donation will help make an impact to others with the condition.
My Mum, Kath was healthy in general for most of her life, she ate healthy, exercised regularly, enjoyed long walks and a morning exercise every day.
A loving, caring Mum & Nana.
She enjoyed spending time with family. Music festivals and cottage breaks with her Husband. Family days out and annual holidays. She simply enjoyed going out for lunch with her Daughter and spending time playing games, reading and chatting with her Grandchildren.
Her passion in life besides being a Mum was painting. Kath achieved a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art at Birmingham University before setting up a studio in Nottingham where she created many wonderful and interesting pieces of Art and regularly exhibiting them in different cities across the country such as London, Leicester, of course Nottingham and many more.
She would express herself through creating acrylic and oil paintings, inspired by the contrast of the natural world and the industrial man made world. Many pieces of her work would represent the importance of the environment.
On the other hand, for decades Kath suffered with Raynauds Syndrome, the main symptom being the loss of blood flow and colouring in her fingers, where they would extremely turn white or purple. She would crave to keep warm and often wear many layers of clothing, hats and gloves even for most parts of the warmer months of the year.
As Kath reached her 70’s it came to light that she had heart failure, her heart would beat irregular or slower than it should. After many tests heart failure was confirmed and after having an endoscopy, Barrett’s Oesophagus was also diagnosed.
Over the next few years Kath noticed swelling in her feet and ankles, as this got worse and the swelling spread up her legs this hugely affected her mobility, she gradually found it harder to walk up steps or hills and would progressively overtime get more out of breath when doing so.
Yet she would still keep as active as possible, still riding on her exercise bike and going on walks.
Kath went on her last long walk of 8 miles on 22nd January 2025.
Then in March was the first time Kath was admitted to hospital with concerns again of her heart condition and swelling of her legs.
We found out that the swelling was being caused by the heart not being able to pump blood around the body as well as it should, resulting in fluid retention in the lower parts of her body.
She was treated in hospital with the aim to reduce the swelling, while the doctors did tests after tests, with no real answers for us for a long time.
Kath was determined to keep going, after being discharged from hospital she went on holiday to Cornwall with her family with their help, at the beginning of August. She did her best to join in where she could and walked with a frame aid to help her get around, but it was extremely difficult for her.
Eventually Kath was admitted again into hospital at the end of August, the swelling had got worse and the doctor was even more concerned about her heart.
Still having had lots of tests before we finally got a diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease named Scleroderma, more specifically Systemic Sclerosis.
Finally, all the problems put together made sense, we question how it took so long to diagnose!
By this time Kath had become more frail and weak and needing lots of help to even move out of her hospital bed, a certain treatment was too risky by this point, therefore we were told by the doctors that she won’t get better, there is no cure and seeing how fast her health had deteriorated over the previous month and her lungs were also now retaining fluid, that they will be focusing on making sure she’s pain free and comfortable for the time she has left, which we were told could be a few months.
Kath was then fast tracked to a nursing home, where she would get 24hour medical care, yet somewhere much more comfortable than hospital, with more options of things to do comfortably.
At this point Kath was now put on oxygen 24hours a day, we still thought she could have months left, we settled her into a lovely nursing home named Woodthorpe Hill, with some lovely staff. We regularly visited, taking her things she liked, playing board games and chatting over a cuppa or sit with her while she had her dinner.
But sadly she had a lot less time than we even could have imagined. On the 7th night at the nursing home it was clear that Kath was struggling even more so and feeling very unwell, there were times where this would happen previously and she’d feel better the next day, but not this time.
The next day, being comforted by her Husband Clive in the morning, then with her Daughter Katie & Son-in-law Ross, Kath peacefully passed away at 2:30 in the afternoon with their support and comfort by her side. Kath was 74 years old.
If only we knew about the condition earlier, maybe more could have been done for Kath to live longer and understand more of what was happening to her.
This condition needs to be more made aware of and this is what we are aiming to do while hopefully raising some money for this charity to help research and to help improve the lives of people suffering with this autoimmune disease.
If you would like to donate any amount in memory of my Mum, it would mean the world - Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me. Love Katie x
More information about Scleroderma & Raynaud's UK: We are Scleroderma & Raynaud's UK (SRUK), the only UK Charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with scleroderma and Raynaud's phenomenon. We are here to improve awareness and understanding of these conditions, to support those affected, and ultimately, to find a cure.
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