Jennie sadly passed away a year ago today after the wait for a kidney transplant proved too long and hard, and chose to live the rest of her life on dialysis. However Jennie went on to make a difference to others by agreeing to donation and gave the Gift of Sight.
Jennie’s daughter who received a liver transplant in 2023 pays tribute to her beloved mum:
“Our dear mum Jennie lost her battle with Chronic Kidney Disease in October 2024, but was determined that she would go on to make a difference by sharing her wishes.
Mum always had time, patience and a smile for everyone, so it comes as little surprise that when the time came she chose to be a tissue donor.
She was always a busy lady, running a house, looking after our family, involved in lots of charity work and helping anyone she could as that is who she was, as well as enjoying her job at a local Accountants.
Before she retired she had been seen by the renal team for a few years for Chronic Kidney Disease, but was reassured things were steady.
Her and dad retired in the summer of 2015 and had plans to do all the things that they had been putting off. Thankfully they enjoyed a few holidays, but in 2016 her kidney function was low enough to require dialysis.
Initially she chose to have peritoneal dialysis at home to avoid the 20 mile journey each way for dialysis. This worked well for a while but she soon developed complications which meant that the only option was haemodialysis.
She took it in her stride and started her three dialysis sessions per week at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle. Dad took her the 20 miles there and dropped her off around 6.30am, then went home and drove back again to collect her around 12 noon. It was hard for both of them, but as they both said, better than the alternative.
Mum was diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2017, she didn’t do things by halves, and went for elective surgery in the December.
Unfortunately she caught flu whilst in ICU and spent almost 6 weeks in hospital recovering. When she came home she still had a long way to go but she was determined and she bounced back in true ‘Jennie’ style.
Things improved and they even managed a family holiday to Spain, with mum having dialysis arranged there which all went well.
We then had a good run, mum was on the transplant list from 2017-2022, and despite 5 years passing she never got a single call.
Fast forward to early 2022, Dad wasn’t well and sadly it all happened quite quickly and he got a terminal cancer diagnosis in the April and passed peacefully in May. This hit mum hard and she was temporarily suspended from the list.
We went for tests and chatted at length about what she wanted. She decided that she would stay off the list and spend the rest of her life on dialysis. She didn’t feel she had the strength to go through with it anymore and was also concerned as by this point I had been listed for a liver transplant due to an autoimmune liver disease, typical mum always thinking of others.
But she was content that she still had a good quality of life at the time from her dialysis.
Over the last two and a half years of her life, mum had lots of ups and downs health wise but somehow always managed to bounce back.
That was until September 2024, she’d had 7.5 years of dialysis, which meant she had seen and experienced so much more because of this, amazing memories had been made. But unfortunately she was becoming increasingly frail and her dialysis could not cure this.
She made the brave decision to end her dialysis treatment and receive palliative care., initially at the local hospital, and then at our local hospice, this bought us almost two weeks of time to spend together. We always knew this day would come but we hoped that it would be a long way in the future. Knowing that mum wanted to be a tissue donor where possible, and being able to honour that decision meant the world to her and our family, and gave us hope that something positive could come from her death.
So on 16 October 2024 she was able to donate her corneas.
Throughout all of this time from her first dialysis session, to the day she decided it was her last, she never complained once about how things had turned out. She simply took it all in her stride, making the best of what she had and continuing to help those around her where she could. She became a dab hand at taking new dialyis patients under her wing and helping them settle into the unit.
I fortunately received my life saving liver transplant in December 2023 thanks to a selfless donor and their family, which mum said was like winning the lottery. This also gave her the peace of mind to make the right decision for herself when the time came.
Organ donation has had a huge impact on our family, and although mum never had the opportunity to receive the gift of life, she graciously went on to give the gift of sight, a legacy that could not be more fitting from such a lovely lady. “
