A Keighley woman is pounding the pavements in training for a marathon to raise money for the local hospital renal unit that has treated her mum.
Carly Barrett, whose mum is kidney transplant patient Carole Davidson, is running the York Marathon in October to raise money for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s renal unit.
She had previously put herself forward as a potential kidney donor for her mum – 30 years after her aunty, Carole’s sister, donated a kidney when Carole first became seriously ill.
Carly offered to donate one of her kidneys so her mum could avoid dialysis and get better as soon as possible. Unfortunately, tests showed Carly wasn’t a match but her sister Alex Binns and step-dad Howard Binns were, so one of them may be a donor for Carole.
Carole, aged 57, from Cullingworth, had her first kidney transplant when Carly was just four years old. Her sister’s amazing donation proved successful and has given Carole many years of good health, but earlier this year a routine check-up sadly showed that the kidney transplant wasn’t working as well as it did.
Her consultant nephrologist at the Trust, Dr Russell Roberts, told Carole that unfortunately she may need dialysis treatment and a possible transplant in the next couple of years.
Could be donors
“Mum’s doing OK at the moment but it looks like she’s going to need dialysis in the future, and I really don’t want her to go through that while she waits for a donor, so my sister and I both got tested to see if we could be donors,” said Carly.
Carly, who lives in Oxenhope, only started running at the end of last year but has set herself the goal of doing the York Marathon as a thank-you to the renal team for caring for Carole.
Dr Roberts said: “It’s really kind of Carly to donate the proceeds from the run to Bradford Hospitals’ Charity to support those patients with renal and kidney disease cared for in Bradford.”
“Not only does she want to raise money for our renal unit but she was also willing to be a potential kidney donor so that her mum could receive a second transplant if the medical team thinks it’s necessary. That was such an amazing gesture.”
To donate, visit www.justgiving.com and search for Carly Barrett’s page.
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