British Transplant Games 2010 - Sunday

Early morning - no time for breakfast! Off to the University of Bath for a day of athletics - the British Transplant Games.




The weather forcast was rain and rain...but WOW....it was sunny!!



Earlier this year the Bath Chronicle published an article about me and the family, particularly the link between athletics officiating and being a transplantee. So today was my turn to show what I was made of, and be one of the timekeepers.


What makes this event - the Transplant Games - so very special, is the mixture of ages and abilities. There are some very competitive and competent athletes, and there are so many more fun loving, have a go, fabulous transplantees - from walking age to "150"!!

The two pictures above show a member of the King's Transplant Team (in the lead).

The children's hospital teams were simply, a delight. These gorgeous little children from Papworth, King's, Great Ormond Street, Guys, Bristol Royal, Plymouth, Edinburgh - and so many other wonderful life saving units - were just inspirational.

Pudsey Bear is always a part of the Games, and the little ones just swarmed round him/her!! On the Saturday I met a family from Kingston. I asked who had had the transplant because they all looked so well, and the little girl aged about 4 or 5 said she had. She had needed a kidney but would not have lived had she had to wait on the donor list. She was however very lucky. Both her parents were compatible - and her dad donated one of his kidney's to his daughter. How lovely is that?

Have you ever been somewhere where all you have done is smile all day? Because that is exactly what I did. Just watching everyone trying so hard; marvelling at some of the speeds; and just loving the smiles on everyones faces.

There were only 3 timekeepers including me, but the atmosphere was very relaxed and fun. The longest track race was just 1500m but the morning was very intense with race after race of sprint heats and 800m.

There were even 20m sprints for the under 5s. The picture below is the crowd of people allowed on the track to encourage these little athletes. One little girl ran in a wheeled frame, others with feeder tubes in - can you imagine the cheers??

The day of athletics finished with relay finals of which the King's Team had only managed to qualify into - but they did brilliantly and won Silver. Well done King's - all of you..

School's nearly over...

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I updated this blog, so in BRIEF, I will tell you what I have been up to!!

TIMEKEEPING

In the last month I have officiated at the following athletic tracks/events:-
Wimbledon Park, Kingsmeadow (Surrey Schools), Crystal Palace (was SEAA TK Steward), Sutton (a private girl's schools league), Walton, Crawley, Walton (again), Crystal Palace (as a tk at London Youth Games)...and Reigate Priory Park (RPAC Summer 10k). And I even had a few weekends off. I think my total events for this summer is around 25-30, and coming up is the Gatton 10k, SEAA at Copthall, Woking Open, possibly Crawley again but it's Bank Holiday weekend (!), and Epsom/Ewell.

LISTEN

The LISTEN committee has met up as a group at least twice in the last month as we had our SUMMER BALL, and lots of other times within the period predominantely to progress with our brand new website http://www.listenatkings.org/

The LISTEN Summer Ball took place on Saturday 26 June and I believe we took over £6000 gross. It was a beautiful evening; warm and balmy! It was held at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton which is near Richmond Park, and when we arrived champagne was served on the grass terrace which overlooks the cricket pitch (game still in progress).

There were 2 very good speeches of the 4, given by Prof Nigel Heaton and by the mother of one of the liver transplantees who got to use the LISTEN Lodge when her daughter was struck down by acute liver failure in Northern Ireland, and like me, only had hours to live. Eileen, the mother, explained what had happened to her family and how wonderful the staff at King's were/ are (hear, hear!) and how the Lodge had been a godsend. They had come over from NI just for the Ball! I wish I could thank every single person who came - it was a lovely night and the LISTEN team worked really hard - THANK YOU XXX

KINGS & LIVER


My daily little life savers!






Boxes and boxes..





I'm writing this updated blog from my bed on Todd Ward at King's College Hospital.

I last had blood tests on 10 June and my main liver enzymes were coming into the normal range (having been diagnosed with a repeat of AutoImmune Hepatitis in May), so my steroids were reduced from 30mg to 25mg for the next 2 weeks, then to 20mg, which has now been about 3 weeks I think. My hair stopped falling out, it seems, as the liver enzymes dropped and 5 weeks later, I can report that it is starting to grow back. I've said time and time again that I am lucky that I have so much hair so people that don't know me well or don't see me often won't notice the difference. It was hard for me though - and I am relieved that it was just the thickness that suffered and that I have no bald patches.

Moon face, hump and weight gain - I DO look a bit like a cartoon character right now (I have a funny picture that I will load so you can see - also hard to share).

BUT nothing hurts. I am well. I AM! Really! Since the steroids came down to 20mg, I've been tired but expect my body is just working a little harder to sort itself out...

OTHER STUFF

Well, I've spent an evening learning how to use the http://www.rpac.org.uk/ website (regarding loading results etc), have had a number of web meetings with Peter about http://www.listenatkings.org/ including spending the afternoon in a pub in Smallfields (where I'll be next Tuesday), I've met up with Emma who I used to work with at Lowcostholidays.com and who now has her own HR company.

My family welcomed Baby Kyla Frances McKenzie into the world (born 5th July 2010), spent last weekend in Lancashire for my birthday and had a super meal in Lytham on the Saturday (1oth) night - hell journey there and back though!




Nanny (my mum) and Kyla










Kyla...









My new baby cousin says Little N









My new big cousin says Kyla...













Middle Big sister Shannon, with tiny little sister Kyla and their cousin, Little N!







Stav and I went to the Biggin Hill Air Show on the day after the LISTEN Summer Ball (pictures coming) in June, and this week I met up with two friends from my first secondary school, Tudor Grange in Solihull, West Midlands.

Facebook was how we got in contact. I have known Sally Ann possibly since I was 7/8, although I think our friendship really started in the 3rd or 4th year of juniors (Greswold) and then onto the first three years at Tudor Grange Secondary School before I moved to Northampton. Margaret, I met at Tudor Grange and whilst I met Sally Ann earlier this year, I actually hadn't seen Margaret for nearly 30 years (saying it makes me feel soooo old).. I drove up to Warwick and the three of us met up together with M's 3 - nearly 4 year old, gorgeous daughter Myra. Anyone with young kids - take them for a kids meal at Pizza Express; the five course meal with babychino is superb! It was fantastic to see them all, and I know we'll keep in touch!

Other than this, I've been writing travel blog, meeting Greg and Stewart for coffees, driving Little N to all sorts of places but mainly jumps training at Sutton, drinking coffee at Sutton with athletes mums, and occasionally actually seeing Stav LOL!

Soggy Sunday

When I got to the Priory to walk Summer at around 9am, even she didn't want to get out of the car - and she HATES driving (!) with a passion!! It was teaming down -rain - not a drop to drink etc etc..

Got soaked - of course - but still had time to marvel at so many people setting up their stands and stalls for the YMCA Fun Run and Sports Festival in Reigate...

I have no right to say they were mad. As soon as I got home, Little N & I raced to the car and sped off to Sutton Arena for the National Young Athletes League 2 match. I know Little N missed having the support of her athletics team RPAC as there is nothing like the enthusiasm and joviality of your mates to get the adrenaline pumping but she high jumped (indoors - still raining!) a 1.50m, long jumped a few cms short of her pb, and then it was suggested she try her hand at triple jump for the first time in competition and surprised everyone with 9 metres - which means she will be ranked by UKA as an Under 17 women's triple jumper!!

Donning waterproof walking shoes, waterproof jacket, waterproof trousers, quick dry Ronhill running trousers and hoody, with fleece, London Marathon "staff" t-shirt, ski socks and fingerless gloves (phew!!), I shared "chief" responsibilities on the timekeeping stand through severe weather warning rain and wind for around 6 hours. I'm afraid I did join in the moaning a little -cold, wet, can't feel my fingers - but it was all light hearted and with a smile!!

Stav's family had watched Little N (her choice of name by the way, after a character in Gossip Girl) jump, and were at home when I dragged myself through the front door. I was pretty tired but it was nice to see them. Little cousin Luca when asked if he had tried jumping too, informed me that he was "too likkle"..

Now on this very Soggy Sunday, it's back to playing with the blog and changing the colours and text.... will I ever be satisfied?