Support after life saving kidney transplant

Hi everyone...My name is Darren and I am raising funds, not just to help with finances and transport costs, but to help towards a well deserved holiday for my Wife, Lucy....She was diagnosed in January 2011 with IgA Nephropathy, also known as Bergers Disease, which is a kidney disease that occurs when IgA deposits build up in the kidneys causing inflammation that damages kidney tissue. IgA is an antibody protein made by the immune system to protect the body from foreign substances such as bacteria or viruses. At the time of diagnosis, Lucy's kidney function was 57%....A normal healthy 35 year old adult has a kidney function of around 90%.

When I first met Lucy in August 2012, I didn't know about her kidney problems, as She looked like a normal, healthy 36 year old mother of 2, but after a couple of months She shared her problems of this invisible disease with me. At that time, her kidney function had dropped to around 38%, a drop of 19% in 18 months....In November 2012, Lucy moved from her home town of Sittingbourne in Kent, to set up home with me in West Sussex, and this is when I told her that I would donate 1 of my kidneys to her, if it could be done.

After a visit to a Kidney Specialist at St Richards hospital in Chichester, we found out that non match kidney transplants are possible, but they do have certain risks.

In July 2018, we got married, and 6 months after, we had a dream honeymoon to the Maldives. At this time Lucy's kidneys were at about 20% function, and looking at our picture, you wouldn't believe she even had kidney disease. She battled through everything to make our wedding and honeymoon extra special.

Over the next 2 years, her kidneys began to deteriorate, when eventually in February 2021, with her function at 10%, she was put on APD Dyalisis, which involves a tube to be inserted into her peritoneum, and glucose fluid is then pumped in to filter out waste and excess water. She has to do this every night at home, for 9 hours. It is a long and tiring process, with boxes of fluids and tubes, and a dyalisis machine that humms all night in the bedroom ( you get used to that after a while tho ). As you can imagine, this put a huge strain on her work and social life, but not on our relationship.

In April 2021, I began the process of being tested for kidney donation....My blood group meant I can donate blood to anyone, so a good start. I then had CT scans, X rays, coloured liquid injected into my veins, samples of all sorts taken, and in November 2021, I was given the good news that my left kidney was perfect for donation....And now, we have been given our transplant date of the 13th September 2022. Only 8 weeks as I write this, and now reality kicks in.

This is not a sob story, and we are not begging for money, but anything donated will go towards the financial costs of what a kidney transplant incurs....frequent trips to hospital and loss of earnings all hit hard, and I would also like to use some to take Lucy on a well deserved break in October 2023. If we hit our target, 10% will be donated to Kidney Care UK, as they do an amazing job

New update 19th September 2022

Hi everyone....Well we did it...The kidney transplant was a complete success....We have been out of the hospital now for almost a week, and the recovery is going well for both of us....The scars and bruising is pretty gruesome so we won't share those with you, and the pain and tiredness is going to last some time, but it will all be worth it....Lucy's blood results are showing a massive turnaround with her creatinine levels....On the Monday before the op they were 484, which is dangerously high, but 24 hours post op, and it was down to 166...2 days later, it was 82. A normal reading for a healthy person....She has to take immunosuppression tablets twice per day for the rest of her life, and as long as her body doesn't reject the kidney, it should be good for many many years. 

We would like to thank everyone who has donated so far, and a huge thank you to all the team and staff at The Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, who worked tirelessly to make this all possible

Love to all, and especially to my Wife xxx