My story starts in the summer of 2015, it was a day like any other. I was at home, I remember not feeling particularly well earlier that day, but like most mothers with 101 things to do, I soldiered on, focusing on my tasks to complete. I remember being in the kitchen cooking a meal for the children and I. The next thing I remember, was being rushed to Hospital - I had collapsed. Had it not been for my daughter finding me, I'm sure I wouldn't be here today.

This was the scariest experience of my life. The thought that I could have died without rapid hospital treatment. I was given powerful steroids that left me feeling drowsy for the best part of 3 days, after starting to come down off the drugs, I was told - my kidneys failed. It turns out I had been suffering from an acute Kidney Injury.

Working in the NHS, on the medical side of clinical care, I was well aware of what this meant. At that time, to save my kidneys (in the short term) - I needed to spend 8 days in the hospital receiving treatment. Dazed and unable to make sense of the world around me. I somehow managed to pull through and made a full recovery.

Returning home, I spent some time trying to piece together the events of the past few days. I had collapsed while cooking, I don't know how long I lay there on the kitchen floor, but I'm so thankful my daughter found me and was able to raise the alarm and get help. I can only imagine how scared she must have felt at that moment - remember, she was only 10 at the time! I must have done something right raising her, talking to her upon my return, she told me she was scared, she screamed for help, turned off the stove fires, before raising the alarm with the neighbours. I'm so proud of her, she was so, so brave.

Fast forward to February 2018...

I'm under the care of Moorfields Eye Hospital. During a routine check-up, the clinicians detected elevated blood glucose. Normal blood glucose fluctuates between 4 - 7 on the scale, mine was consistently on the high side, around 8 - 10 on the scale, which can lead to Organ Damage. Being consistently on the high side, it was felt further investigation was necessary.

Over the coming days, I began to experience an unquenchable thirst, like I've never experienced before. I also experienced fatigue that left me feeling exhausted much earlier in the day than I would normally expect. I'd not changed anything in my routine - far from it. I was working full-time shifts, but something was different. My limbs felt as though something was weighing them down. Something was happening. Several months passed with no improvements. I was also experiencing an inflammation that wasn't abating - this too lasted several months.

My GP requested a raft of "routine blood tests" to see if they would reveal what was going on inside my body. It took what felt like forever to get the results back...

You can drop me a message either via Twitter @Naomi_My_Story or HERE I love reading all of your messages of encouragement.
If you are moved by my story and want to get more involved, please consider doing one of the following two things:

1. Registering to become an Organ Donor here: https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ if you do, be sure to let me know!
New registrations give me a boost!

2. If you want to help me directly by being tested to see if you could donate, you will need to be aware of the following:
  • Firstly, I am BLOOD TYPE O-NEGATIVE it's important you know this in advance to be considered for a possible direct donation.
    Failing that, an indirect donation is still a possibility. Please still get in touch using the below...
  • Secondly, please complete THIS FORM and someone will get back to you to move things forward.

AGAIN, THANK YOU!