Up The Farway Tree

2014 in Pictures

January

New years day

Started the year with our usual family celebrations and full of hope for the year ahead.  Had a busy January working away finishing my first autism essay for my post graduate certificate.  Was glad to start another year happy and healthy!

February

At the science centre

Mum had her 2nd hip replacement and made an excellent recovery afterwards - getting into trouble on the ward for doing too much by herself.  Now that must be where I get it from ;-)  Had a lovely visit from my friend Louise and her family.  Andrew and me became very competitive with the kids at the science centre haha.

March

With Mary Lester in Charleston

Julian - with panda on tour

Me and the pandas at San Diego Zoo

Had an amazing month with our visit to USA!  First to South Carolina for me to present the CF and Body Image booklet at a conference.  It was a fantastic experience!  We managed to do some sight seeing around the region before having a lovely week in San Diego.  Seeing the pandas at the zoo was a major highlight, as was hiring a car and just heading into the mountains.  Would love to go back to California!  Also squeezed in my annual visit to George Heriot school to speak about organ donation.

April 

My birthday

Mums 65th

Dads 70th

My hand crafted ducks!

A month of celebrations!  My 35th birthday, celebrated with my family in the evening and friends and their lovely children during the day with a trip to see the meerkats at Calderglen ;-)  It was then my mums 65th birthday, followed by dads 70th.  Lots of cake!  We also squeezed in a 'cousins' night in honour of mums cousin visiting from Australia.   

I was overjoyed when Anders got his transplant call this month, but he was struggling by the time my own transplant anniversary (6 years) came round at the end of the month, so it was a more muted day than usual.   

This month also saw the launch of the Yellow Duck Project, where hand crafted ducks were left for people to find, with a label directing them to a website about organ, stem cell and blood donation.   Since then it has grown to massive proportions with over 2000 ducks being found in 57 countries!

May

Inverness

Eliott

Anders

This was a difficult month.   The bright spots were myself and Andrew having a lovely trip to Inverness together, and also celebrating Eliott's First Holy Communion.   However the month was largely overshadowed with the struggles that Anders faced post transplant.  It all proved too much and we lost Anders on 19th May - strangely I was at transplant clinic that morning and was allowed in to ITU to say goodbye.  I will treasure that moment.   I know that despite everything Anders still maintained that at least he had been given 'a chance.'

June

John and the BBQ

We were down in Hawick for Johns birthday BBQ and fathers day - my mum and dad came too :-)  I had my annual CF review this month and passed with flying colours.  My friend had her 3rd baby girl Marcella, who is just gorgeous.  Finally I did some organ donation awareness at a school symposium for 5th years who plan to study medicine. 

July 

Clyde the mascot!

The commonwealth games started in Glasgow and there was a great atmosphere all Summer.  Clyde, the mascot dropped into our town as the baton passed through.   We managed to go to the Rugby Sevens final which was brilliant, and also the athletics where we saw the 100m final.   Continuing on the sporting theme I spent a large part of the month getting organised for Anders Soccer Sevens tournament - the moment I realised I literally know nothing about football haha.    In the midst I was working hard to finish my 2nd autism essay so it was a strange month of sport and academia!

August

Winning team at Soccer Sevens

Our wedding 20.8.2004

Photoshoot

Georgia, Marco and Luca - at Blairdrummond

We had Anders Soccer Sevens tournament, which despite the horrendous weather, raised almost £7000 for The Butterfly Trust!!  Everyone pulled together on the day to make it a massive success :-)

It was also our 10th wedding anniversary and we celebrated with a lovely meal at The Buttery in Glasgow and booked a trip to Cyprus for the following month.   

At the end of August our lovely friends Louise and Barry were camping up North so I joined them for a day out at Blair Drummond Safari park - on the pretence it was for 'the children' ;-)   I also had the LLGL advocate weekend squeezed in one weekend and the shoot for the LLGL Transplant Troopers calendar.

September 

Cyprus - in the lift haha!

Horse riding in Cyprus

Me and Emily

We had a lovely relaxing holiday in Cyprus to celebrate our anniversary - it was just what we needed after a busy month.  It would also have been Frances Ann's 30th birthday this month, and ten years since we lost her. 

I also spent a fantastic weekend with Emily at her home - little was I to know it would be the last.  It was booked on a whim as we decided it has just been too long - sometimes you wonder if one of just knew it had to be this month as by October she was in hospital very unwell.

October

Me and Victoria at her Day of the Living Party

Jewellery I made for Day of Living campaign!

Marcella's Christening

Sarah - cheers!

We launched LLGL Day of the Living campaign - it was a twist on the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead where they celebrate those who have passed on, with the symbol of sugar skulls.  Our former advocate Gerard, who lost his battle in 2013,  had a love of sugar skulls so we felt this campaign would be a fitting tribute.  We encouraged people to paint their faces as sugar skulls and post on social media with #skulfie and a message about celebrating organ donation.   It went down well and we had various supporting events - I made lots of sugar skull jewellery from shrink plastic, which was all sold at a pop up shop, making money for LLGL and raising awareness.

I also had a lovely afternoon tea with Sarah where we indulged in some champagne.  We had a great day at Marcella's Christening and to end the month I got the good news that I had passed the Autism Post Graduate Essay.

November

Claire, Lyndsay and Gillian

I hosted an afternoon tea for my friends and had great fun getting out the cake stands, gran's china and baking lots of goodies :-)   I also had transplant clinic and got a glowing review - it's always so nice to get a good report at the end of the year!

December

Seb and his aunty Sarah

Uncle Hugh

Dad

Mum

Me and Andrew

A month of mixed emotions.   Of course the loss of Emily - but also remembering so many others gone before, as you begin to reflect on the years gone past. 

However this month was all about spending time with the people most important to us, including lots of time spent with friends old and new.   Christmas is very much a family time for us and it was lovely to return to my mum and dads for the holidays, as well as visiting Andrews mum and dad, and having them at my mum and dads for new year.  There were lots of chats, games, sharing of hopes for the future. talking about the year past and most importantly an incredible amount of laughing.  Often at mums expense, but laughing all the same ;-)    

I hope all my friends and family have a fulfilling 2015 - with many smiles and much laughter.