I am writing to tell you about my recent achievement. I am an eleven-year-old girl and I live in Leeds, Yorkshire with my mum, dad, rabbit, dog and fish. So, let me tell you how this all began.

My grandparents, amazing people, loved climbing mountains, doing long walks and travelling the world. Back in 2020 this all changed. It was one summers evening and my granddad and my uncle were watching the football at their house when suddenly my granddad become short of breath and within a few minutes was paralysed in his chair. They thought he was having a heart attack and rushed to a nearby defibrillator. Within 15 minutes he had been whisked away in an ambulance, with my nanna and uncle following. Little did we know there he would stay for six weeks, leading to us having an extremely quiet Christmas.

After a few months he was diagnosed with a rare condition called Vasculitis. This caused swelling in his blood vessels, damage to his back tissue and causing him not to have much mobility and of course damage to his kidneys. At this point, my granddad was on 12 tablets a day (I counted!) and was desperate to come home. In February 2021, he finally did and we were all so glad. This gave him freedom but he still lived with the condition. He hated for people to be in the same situation as him so in April he decided to do something about it. My granddad and nanna used to love to climb the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District every year and my granddad said “I am going to do it”. And so, he did, he climbed Blencathra in the Lake District. He raised a lot of money for the National Kidney Federation and that is what gave me the inspiration to do what I did.

At our school, we have a Christmas and a summer fair. Me and my best friend were going to do a stall for last year’s Christmas fair. We decided to do a slime stall but one day my best friend said to me “Lily, I don’t want to give all the money to the PTA charity, I want to give half to your granddad’s charity.” And I said, “Okay, yeah let’s do it!”

So the day of the fair came and my granddad gave me a photo album and an NKF table cloth to put up on our stall. We told his story to many people and sold out! Now comes to the point. Me and my best friend raised £140! So, I am extremely proud of myself and especially her. But my granddad is my superhero and always will be so I do hope you realise the National Kidney Federation how much strength and determination he has because he is amazing and deserves to have his story told.

I do hope you take time the time to read this.

Yours Sincerely,
Lily