WHAT IT FEELS LIKE…
“Holding my hairdryer left me out of breath, and I always felt exhausted in my job at a children’s centre. I tried to carry on, but I was becoming seriously ill, and my parents and boyfriend, Luke, were extremely worried. I’d been diagnosed with kidney failure 18 years ago, aged 13 – it was an unusual and unlucky complication after I’d fallen sick with a rare disease, Henoch-Schönlein purpura, where blood vessels get inflamed. I was left with only 40 per cent kidney function, and told I’d eventually need a transplant.
‘To keep my kidneys going as long as possible, I couldn’t drink more than a litre of fluid a day, and I also had to eat a low-potassium diet, which was hard – so no chips, cheese, potatoes, chocolate. Over the years, my kidneys gradually became worse. By late 2012, my kidney function was at just four per cent and I started emergency dialysis, three times a week for three-and-a-half hours.
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May 2017
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