Kidney transplant mum prepares for charity skydive

[okarol]

Kidney transplant mum prepares for charity skydive
25 May 2013 12:00
Before her kidney transplant Claire Neal couldn’t even walk upstairs, 18 months later she is preparing for a skydive

Share on print Share on email
Claire Neal (right) and her friend Jolanda Fitzgerald who are taking part in a skydive
Eighteen months ago Claire Neal struggled to climb the stairs and didn’t have the strength to take her daughter to school.

But after being given a “new lease of life” following a kidney transplant the 37-year-old is now preparing to throw herself out of a plane for charity.

She will be joined in her daredevil antics by friend Jolanda Fitzgerald who organised the jump in memory of her aunt Louise Hamill who committed suicide three years ago.

Jolanda, mum to Meadow, seven and Baxter, five, said: “My aunt suffered from mental health and depression and it’s the third anniversary of her death coming up.

“I just wanted to raise awareness and I think for Louise it’s a way to show she’s living life to the full.”

Jolanda will be raising money for the mental health charity Mind while Claire will be fundraising for the renal unit at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital where she spent a lot of her time.

Before her transplant Claire, who was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure, needed dialysis three times a week.

The mum to Liam, 17, and Hannah, seven, said: “It wasn’t just my life on hold. It was my husband’s and my children’s. There were times I couldn’t get off the couch. It was a horrendous time.

“My daughter was suffering from anxiety over whether her mum was going to be OK but she is a happy little girl now.

Claire’s now doing “marvelously” after her cousin Peter Hughes gave her his kidney in April last year.

She said: “We are now living a completely different life to what we were 18 months ago.

“I can take my daughter to school and I’m now learning karate when before I couldn’t even get up the stairs.”

Following her recovery, Claire, who lives in Ingleby Barwick, says she wants to “give something back” to the unit which helped save her life.

Claire who is married to Rob, 34, said: “I’m feeling great - so great that I want to fling myself from a plane! I’m very nervous. But it’s a good nervousness. My husband thinks I’m bonkers. It’s going to be a big tick off my bucket list.”

Jolanda - whose aunt proposed the idea of turning Thornaby Town Hall into a digital heritage centre - says she wants to raise as much money as possible for Mind.

She said: “She was a really vibrant and vivacious woman but she would be struck by this darkness that would overcome her. I’m hoping that by doing this in her memory it will help prevent another family going the same devastating experience.”

To sponsor Claire logon to www.justgiving.com/claire-neal2

To sponsor Jolanda logon to www.doitforchairty.com/jolanda

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/ingleby-barwick-kidney-transplant-mum-4014780