Clare's story. Her battle with a terminal illness.

I am aware this is a lot of money to raise, but there is a very good reason, please take a few minutes out of your day to read this moving story. My beautiful friend, one of the strongest and most inspiring women I have ever met, faces a terminal illness, chronic kidney failure stage 5, and has battled since only 12 years old and is now 42.The goal is to get her dream holiday before it's to late and we have no idea how much time she has, keep reading I will go into detail and why it costs a fortune. But first, she doesn't even want to make a fuss and would never set up this "go fund me" for herself, she has never let her illness crush her positivity but sometimes that positivity masks just how serious her condition is and she never asks for sympathy. She's raised money for countless charities, puts everyone before herself even with her chronic condition, one of her main goals is to raise awareness for the thousands of people going through this with her, as its not something that is often spoken about and a lot people do not understand the effect this has on a persons life. Kindness does not even begin to describe how unbelievably selfless she is. I know everyone may think so many people would say that about their friends, but those who know her would agree this is not an exaggeration. When she was well enough for a period of time she had a passion for horse riding and had her own business teaching youths dressage, she loved to inspire them to reach their full potential. Unfortunately her health took that from her years ago.

Now for the sad truth behind her brave face. As i mentioned before, this began when she was just 12 years old, after suffering countless UTI's and nose bleeds, she was seen by the doctor and they discovered her blood pressure was 310/220 obviously very dangerously high. She was immediately admitted to hospital where various tests were performed, scans, biopsies etc and was diagnosed with kidney failure.

She suffered for many years on high doses of medication, pain, and due to a back up of urine, suffered scarring in her kidneys and was told she would require a transplant in the future. The pain medication and illness carried on for years until the transplant was the only option to give her a chance at a normal life. In 2007 her mother gave her the gift of a fresh start and donated one of her kidneys. Everything went well and they both recovered well. Clare believed this was the beginning of a positive future and was filled with excitement. Sadly this was not to last.

Clare met a wonderful man who became her fiancé whom she adored, thinking everything was finally coming together and she could have everything we all want from life. Unbelievably he died of sudden death syndrome at just 32. A devastating blow that still haunts her to this day. In the meantime she continued to have water infections, and caught ecoli from a meal eaten in a restaurant! How much can one person take honestly! This took its toll on her her transplanted kidney, so it also failed, meaning she had to start dialysis. She had no idea what to expect and told me that had she known what the her future would be like, she never would have started it. It is debilitating and takes such a toll on the body, and she has to put herself through it 3 times a week with the process taking 4.5 hours per session, but its the only thing keeping her alive. She also has to drive an hour each way and feels terribly ill afterwards. But unbelievably, things get even worse for this poor woman, keep reading I know this is a lot!

For those that don't understand the process of dialysis, it involves a tube being attached to a needle that is inserted into a vein, then the blood is pumped through a machine that filters it, effectively acting as a kidney, and the blood is returned to the body through another tube, sounds simple right? Well, Clares 'ports' where the needles are attached began to fail, one after the other..... 7 to date. With countless procedures/surgeries to try and fix them, nothing has worked to fix them. During this time she also went into a coma for 4 days, contracted meningitis, suffered migraines, and lung disease. She still remained positive throughout all of this.Then she received news she was getting another new kidney!

She was absolutely over the moon. But as I'm sure you you can guess by now, this also became a nightmare. She arrived at hospital to undergo the surgery worried out of her mind. She got the kidney, but due to a medical error unbelievably it failed, no matter what they tried nothing worked. Clare spent 3 months in hospital on this occasion. All the while posting positive updates on facebook.

Now her only option was to return to dialysis. She had ports into her neck, directly into her heart, anywhere they could find a viable vein. Now is the saddest part, she is on her last port, which has not been without its problems, but thank god, its currently functioning. If it fails that is it for Clare. She's out of options. This breaks my heart. Now onto what we can do for her.

Clare has a dream! To enjoy a holiday in St Lucia. Sadly, the treatment she requires whilst away will cost 6000 pounds!! Not to mention the cost of the holiday itself on top. I know if this reaches enough people, we might be able to achieve this. After reading her story, I'm positive you understand why she absolutely deserves this one trip of her life time. I'm appealing on behalf of Clare that you donate anything you can, and share share share. She inspires me to not sweat the small stuff. She's incredibly brave and wants this more than anything in her life. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I know it's a lot, I didn't even include some of the other difficult details of her journey. SHE DESERVES THIS. I've attached some pictures that are a little graphic so if you don't want to see don't scroll down.