good morning bigmoose blog reader,
apologies for not sending a blog out last week, i was due to do a talk to 200 plus staff at development bank of wales last friday with chloe, but unfortunately on the morning she became very ill, and wasn’t able to join me, so i had to prep to fly solo, instead of our rehearsed joint presentation, which limited my capacity.
chloe’s health has deteriorated, and her kidneys have lost almost 20% function in the last month, leaving her with only 15%, which is understandably seeing her health suffering as her body breaks down.
it is awful to watch, but she is extremely brave, and she is now going into the kidney transplant pool in july, where hopefully she will find a match, and she can get stronger, and live the life she deserves.
it is a painful process as a family to endure, but her tenacity and resilience are extremely admirable to watch, she is one brave young lady, and as her dad i am amazed at her achievements with chronic kidney disease, so when she has a new kidney there’ll be no stopping her i’m sure.
the picture above is me and my mate stephen waddington, aka wadds, who upon hearing about my 12 talks in 12 months personal challenge invited me to speak at an event he runs for a group of p.r. professionals in london, who i last spoke to in november 2022, prior to going public about my parkies, so it was a new challenge of a different kind, with it’s own nuances.
but they were a great audience, and wadds gave me a testimonial that i have found difficult to share with anyone as it is so good, and i am embarrassed to show it off, however it is a lovely statement that is good for me to read privately if i need a confidence boost.
confidence is one of the things that parkies challenges, facing the world, with new physical struggles is definitely a pressure, but by pushing myself out my comfort zone, hopefully i can manage it.
as well as talking in london, i have done a couple of talks in cardiff, and am actually starting to enjoy telling my story, and today am heading off to ‘the big retreat’ in pembroke for talk number 9 of 12, although they have me on the lineup with a name change.
