Claire and Giuseppe's Wedding

My best friend from school, Claire, got married on 26th November - so here are some photos of a fantastic day!


Claire with her dad - in St Margarets Church, South Queensferry.  Amazing dress, which was absolutely stunning :-)

Claire's lovely bridesmaids - her four sisters!  Anne-Marie had made all the invites, and lovely order of services rolled into scrolls and tied with navy ribbon.  Giuseppe's nephews handed out the scrolls, which was very cute.

Me reading the Responsorial Psalm (to my right is Brian, Claire's brother)

Exchanging vows!  (with Fr McDonald,  a friend of Claire's family)

The rings!

Signing the register

Claire and Giuseppe at the reception - Orocco Pier.  Lovely venue - lots of twinkly lights in the room which made it quite magical!  Nice touches all evening from the favours (pin badges supporting cancer research) to the evening snack  - fish and chips in a poke (scottish word ;-)) which was styled like a newspaper printed with pictures of Claire and Giuseppe.    The band were amazing- same one as Gillian had, and they were just as good this time round.  (called Northern Star if anyone looking for a very good wedding band!)  Speeches were excellent and there was a lovely atmosphere all evening.

Me and mum

Me and Claire

'The girls' - all great friends from school

The cake.  Lovely photos of Claire and Giuseppe's parents on their wedding day on either side.  Sadly Claire's mum and Giuseppe's dad are no longer with us, but were very much remembered on the day.

Mini Claire and Giuseppe cake topper - made by me (from fimo clay)!!

First Dance - Let's get married  by The Proclaimers

Claire and Giuseppe's names projected onto the shore outside (venue overlooks river forth and the road bridge).  You could go out onto a wee balcony to see this, which looked amazing.

To see some professional pictures visit the photographers blog

All in all, a  lovely day for a lovely couple!!  Love you guys!! xx

In Memory of Louise

I received the very sad and unexpected news yesterday that my friend Louise had died at the weekend, three years post transplant and 31 years old.  I have spoken about Louise many times on my blog (she posted in the comments as LouLou).  Louise had a really difficult time with her health from a very young age.  As a child she has Wilms tumour, which is a type of tumour on the kidney.  She had her kidney removed and underwent radiation therapy.  Unfortunately it is likely that this radiations therapy is what led to her developing Pulmonary Fibrosis in her twenties.  At this stage she had a degree in psychology, worked as a primary school teacher and also worked weekends as a manager at Thomas Cook.  That was the kind of girl Louise was - into everything!!  Her lung disease declined dramatically over a short period of time and she was turned down by the London transplant teams as being too unwell for transplant.  Freeman in Newcastle however agreed to take the risk.  She did undergo a lung transplant in summer 2008, shortly after my own transplant.  Unfortunately she had many post op complications and an extremely turbulent recovery in ITU.  This left her new lungs badly damaged but she was determined to carry on and make the most of her new life.   In the following years Lou developed many post transplant complications to further challenge her positive attitude.  She had post transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a kind of cancer that can occur after transplant, for which she needed chemotherapy due to it affecting her liver.    To just add to the mix Lou only had one kidney, due to the childhood cancer, so her renal function started to decline due to her immunosuppressant medication and her already weak heart pre transplant started to suffer badly and she was diagnosed with end stage heart failure.   Essentially she had failure in every organ but somehow she just kept going.  

You might think that someone with all the above problems (and many more I haven't even mentioned) would hide herself away and feel bitter about the cards she was dealt.  Lou was the complete opposite!  She had managed to get back to doing some part time work in the school again, taken up a photography course (which she passed with distinction) and ran her own craft shop online.  She was an advocate for Live Life Then Give Life and was always coming up with fundraising schemes, which extended to other charities she supported.  She would be the first to send a home made card with words of encouragement to anyone going through a hard time, despite her own difficulties.  She was awarded Thomas Cook employee of the year and worked hard to represent them this year.

I think in many ways we often forgot how ill Lou really was because she rarely complained.  Her attitude to life was one that we could all take some lessons from.  Only days before her death she had posted on facebook that she was making up boxes for underprivileged children for Christmas.  Her blog was called Happy to be Me, and one of her sayings was 'It's not about what you have got, but what you choose to do with it',  which essentially says it all.  We will all miss you Lou  xxx

It seems to have been another busy few weeks!

Last weekend I was delighted to be Godmother at Caoimhe's Christening.  Caoimhe (pronounced Keeva) is my friend Lauren's wee baby - completely adorable, like her big sister Orla.  It was a lovely day and we had some nice sunshine for a change.  Caoimhe didn't wake up during the entire service, other than opening her eyes briefly when the Baptismal water was poured over her head, then going promptly back to sleep!   I wish I was as chilled as that :-)

During the week I had taken an annual leave day to help out at a schools symposium, being organised by NHSBT.   6th year pupils from across Scotland who were interested in studying medicine, or related health care subjects, had been invited.  There were 7 stations for them to work through - from meeting transplant surgeons,  donor coordinator nurses, labs staff to our station, which was myself and a wonderful lady whose 3 year old son had donated his organs and saved 5 lives on his death.   We had 7 groups for 30 minutes each, so it was quite hard going - talking about both our stories with each group.   I think it was a powerful message though, and allowed the students to see the real life side of organ donation and of medicine in general.

Friday I had a good catch up with Claire....whose wedding is only a week away now!  Then in the evening myself and Andrew were at the Alabama 3 concert in Glasgow.  Most people have no idea who I am talking about but if you have seen the TV show The Sopranos - they did the theme tune for that.  They describe their music as acid house country rock and I guess that pretty much covers it!  There was a really varied crowd of all ages so it was a really eclectic mix.  We really enjoyed it and also had caught up with our friends Clare and Al, who were also going along. 

Yesterday was not so much fun, as I ended up at A+E getting my foot xrayed!  It started on Tuesday with a really acute sharp pain that came on when I was walking.  I had been limping for the rest of the week and it seemed to be getting worse as opposed to better.  Although standing at a concert didn't exactly help!  Some of you might remember that a similar thing happened shortly after my transplant and it turned out to be a stress fracture (because I have osteoporosis).  Anyway the xray didn't show any obvious fracture so it is likely to be a soft tissue injury and just needs a bit of rest.  I am not very good at rest!  I have however been good today and hopefully it will clear up soon - especially before Claire's wedding next week so I can wear nice shoes for dancing!!!

I have now uploaded some other pictures from the halloween party, which shows of the decorations more.   You can check these out HERE.

Now I am off to start thinking about Christmas.  Count down will be starting in couple of weeks....

Fundraising

I was holding off blogging about the Dead Famous Halloween party until we had a final total, but I thought I better write something before people thought I had been eaten by a monster ;-)

Better to say it in pictures (more to come, but this will give a good idea!)


We had a coffin (yes, it's real) set up with a ghoul in it (whose head lit up).  We got people to pose in front of the scene for photos and then they could buy the picture in a keyring, which we were making up on the night!

Work friends.  Jamie won best fancy dress for the shower (replica of the scene in Karate Kid when he goes to a fancy dress party)

Whole team of helpers - Kirsty and Dougie, Victoria, Gregg, Harminder, Obie, Mandy and us

Kirsty doing everyone's makeup before we started!  Below she makes up Lauren (professional photographer who took pictures for us)

Andrew as Edward Scissorhands!!!

Gillian and Pip

Some of the fab decorations we had donated!!  The place looked amazing with lots of gory heads, spooky ghouls, tombstones and cobwebs everywhere.  I got lots of LED black and orange tealights and put them in jam jars with spiders stuck on them, so we had these on the tables. 

Everyone had a great night and we have raised almost £1000 from the night and donations!  We are still waiting to hear about a possible large donation through a contact so will keep you posted on the final total!  I must admit it was probably more stressful in some ways than the ball because quite a lot of people let us down on the night and didn't come along and it was much harder to sell tickets than for the ball -despite the price difference!  I think if people decide to come to a ball they will commit but for a smaller party they are more likely to pull out.  Luckily we had arranged with the venue to allow members of the public on later on, so it was actually very busy and got donations and sold raffle tickets to these people too!  We also had a lady reading Runes for us, which went down really well and Kirsty had made up lovely sweetie bags which we sold on the night.  All in all I think it was a big success, although I think I might still be recovering!

I then spent the rest of the week trying to make cards to sell at mums charity auction - again for The Butterfly Trust.  This was last weekend and was a massive success - she raised almost £2000 in one night - professional!!  It is always a fab night :-)

Will be back soon with my general chit chat :-)

Face painter?

If anyone can help us with face painting at the halloween party or knows someone who can, please get in touch :-)  

Halloween Party Venue Change

The halloween party for The Butterfly Trust is this saturday!   We had a recent change of venue, so it is now being held at The Flying Duck Club on Renfield St in the city centre.   The union was going to be too large (and costly) for our numbers so we had to make a quick decision and fortunately this fab venue was available :-)   We had actually tried to get it at the start, but they had a booking at that time.  It's a quirky wee pub/club so will be more comfortable and cosy setting - hopefully be able to create more atmosphere.   We have our own DJ until 11pm, then their DJ will take over and other people can come into the club, so should be a good night.  We have also been able to reduce ticket prices so now £7 standard/£5 student.  So if you had been put off by the student union venue but fancy this new one - let me know because tickets still on sale :-)  Either online or contact me.   

Just Giving page will also keep running until the event for any donations from people who want to support the cause but can't make it on the night. 

Exciting :-)

Cyprus

We got back last weekend but I have been rather caught up this week!  Will summarise the holiday in pictures :-)

Paphos harbour

Small castle in Paphos - view from top of castle

Andrew with the very small castle!

Paphos is a national heritage site due to ancient ruins and the uncovering of many mosaics.  These would have been on the floor of villas previously on this site.  The heritage site is massive and they are still working to uncover items.

Above sunset is from the veranda of hotel bar.  The picture below is from where we had lunch in the hotel everyday.  There was a private cove at the beach, although the beaches are largely rocky in Cyprus.

Hotel pool

Ready for dinner

Andrew braved the pool - it was rather chilly!!!

If we didn't like the evening entertainment we played cards :-)

These pictures are at the Tombs of the Kings.   Although no kings were ever buried here, it was a burial site.  There are tombs carved out of the rock - that's me standing in the entrance to one below.

Monastery and Hermitage

Andrew with his Godparents, Pat and Andy, who now live in Cyprus

Above, my wee water shoes for wandering about rock pools!  I did go in the sea one day with them :-)  Below, the beach at the hotel with Andrew looking out to sea.

Making a 'handy heart' - the symbol that the organ donor battlefront campaign are using :-)

Undersea Walking!!  We basically had to climb down a ladder at the end of a pier (see last pic) and they lowered these massive diving bells onto your head - they weigh about 30kg but as soon as your head goes under water they are weightless.  You then climb the ladder down to the sea bed and then they walk you out away from the pier.  It was really choppy that day we went so they had to take an instructer down per person to make sure we didn't fall over or float away!  The equipment stays on land, and there is air being pumped into the diving bells - so you breathe normally and it doesn't fill with water.  The instructers then had bread to feed the fish and we all got given some.  I really loved that - although the fish were quite nippy!!  I managed not to fall over (which is a surprise).  My lungs were great but my ears were really sore with the pressure change - but i was just so glad I was able to do it!!

We had a lovely time and managed to relax.  It's a shame that work awaits when you come home, but that's life eh?  I will be back later to post about the halloween party and a change in venue! 

Just Giving

I am all set for my holidays but there will be only 10 days left before our halloween party when I come so wanted to make a quick post!

We have created a Just Giving page for the Butterfly Trust to run alongside the Halloween Party.  This is for anyone who would like to support the event but can't come along - every penny is welcomed by the charity.   I have created a widget on the right on this page for easy access.

For those who wish to attend, don't use this page to pay for tickets.  Either get them online or email teamglasgow for more information.

Freshers Festival and Friends

It's been a bit non stop this week!  I had a quiet day on Tuesday (Fran's birthday) and went into meet Andrew for lunch on this break.  Wednesday I went to pick up the organ donor kit at 8am then I was presenting a case for teaching at work, then busy clinic and then drove straight into town to start assembling the desk for Thursday morning.  You could get access in the evening to park nearby to transfer items for your stand and to start building this, otherwise you needed to be there at 8am and have it done for the health and safety check at 8.30am but with no unloading at the site.  Luckily Andrew met me and provided his flat pack building skills to put together this podium that you post completed forms into (on loan from Scottish Government) and to pull all the banners up (which I am too small to do) and carry heavy boxes I can't lift!  They had upgraded us to a bigger desk which was good because we had lots of stuff to spread out :-)

Thursdsay morning I got the train in and realised when I got there I had forgotten a table cover (these weren't included) so had to leg it up to John Lewis for it opening and buy some paper ones.  The desk looked fab once we had it all set out though.  We had the two LLTGL banners and also the purple Scottish government one for organ donation.  It was myself, Victoria and Kirsty in the morning and then after Kirsty went to work, Gregg came to help for the rest of the day.  It was absolutely mobbed - they have about 15,000 students through the doors over 2 days!  The encouraging thing was that a massive amount of students had already signed up through their provisional driving license, Boots card or when registering at the GP after moving to uni.  For those who hadn't signed up we had a lot of good chats, gave out info and made people atop and think.   The students went a bit mad for the logo bugs and we gave out all 300 (having to hold them back to make them last the two days).

Day two was marginally quieter but busier for us as we were able to stop more people and have a chat - when it was too busy it was harder to do this.  It was mostly myself and Victoria, although Gregg managed to come down again and help.  We got all the people at one of the other stalls to sign up and promised them a logo bug for each person they got to sign up after that - they brought us quite a few as a result!  It was good fun although I was utterly exhausted - we were there from 9-5pm both days and I didn't sit down at all.  It was also the freak heat wave and inside the tent (with no air con and next to a stall making popcorn) we were melting!   However in the two days we signed up 121 people on the spot and gave away hundreds of leaflets to people interested.  So it was definately worth it and I think Team Glasgow did well!  For pictures go the the Team Glasgow Blog, where Victoria has uploaded them.

I didn't slow down for yesterday as we had a big group of friends over for the night, but it was great fun and I had a fab night.  I just tend to cook something easy for people to help themselves so we had chilli con carne (with my portion having no spice haha) and rhubarb crumble.  More importantly this year we had a fridge almost entirely dedicated to beer which was rather useful ;)  Everyone has just gone home now and I might just need to go for a nap soon...!

Only one day at work then it is my holidays and I can finally stop for a while :-)