Matthew McLoughlin
Matthew's page
Fundraising for Breakthrough T1D
Story
Hello all,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to visit this page and read about what I am doing and why.
I want to tell you a little about my beautiful Lucy. I met Lucy at Greenhead college in 2005 and it's safe to say my life would never really be the same. I instantly liked this girl. She was confident, ballsy, witty and beautiful. Any one who ever met her, fell in love with her. So cheeky, charming, and genuinely good hearted. It became apparent, very quickly that we would become close friends and in fact ended up calling her my 'Wife', and she called me her 'Husband'. I'd never known love like it as far as a friendship goes and she was the one person I would confide in, the one who knew all of my secrets and the first person I would call, should it be good news or bad. This was to be a lifelong friendship for sure! My best friend.
Whilst studying for her A levels, Lucy discovered that she had type 1 diabetes. A lifelong autoimmune condition, which if not treated effectively, can lead to death. There is currently no cure for type 1 diabetes. For more info on type 1, please visit https://jdrf.org.uk/about-type-1-diabetes/
Lucy wasn't deterred by her condition and carried on to lead as normal life as possible and headed off to uni to study to become a primary school teacher. Unfortunately Lucy was never able to fully graduate. Lucy's severe diabetes caused another condition to develop. Gastroparesis - http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gastroparesis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Lucy became so ill with this condition she was hardly ever well enough to leave the house. Bits of her hair started to fall out, which I can only assume was down to malnutrition from the condition, and this bright, amazing woman who was normally full of life, charming everyone she met, became very sad and low, feeling hopeless about the future.
Eventually Lucy was offered a treatment which they had hoped would help with the Gastroparesis. A 'gastric pacemaker' was to be fitted via surgery to help her stomach digest the food it was currently having trouble with. She went and had the operation at the end of 2013 and was in the process of trialling effective settings.
Lucy never got to benefit from the effects of this. On the morning of 15th April 2014, Lucy very suddenly passed away at home in bed from a Heart Arrhythmia at the age of 24. Her death completely devastated all who had ever met her and left a massive hole in all of our lives.
I wanted to do something to raise money for Diabetes type 1 in her memory and try and make it as personal to Lucy as possible!
I came up with this;
1) Lucy loved children. She was going to be a primary teacher, therefore I wanted to help a children's charity.
2) Lucy also loved gingers (hence me being her husband)
Lucy wasn't a massive sports person so it didn't feel personal to run a marathon for her. So what I have decided to do is this.
I have spent the last nearly 2 years growing my hair. Now that it is long enough, I will be cutting off a minimum of 7 inches and donating it to the 'Little Princess Trust' to make wigs for children with cancer. At the same time I am fundraising for the charity JDRF. A Charity dedicated to curing type 1 Diabetes, in the hope that one day, no one will have to go through what Lucy went through.
This one's for you Wifey!! 'You're every line, you're every word, you're everything' xxxxxx
First of all, thank you for taking the time to visit this page and read about what I am doing and why.
I want to tell you a little about my beautiful Lucy. I met Lucy at Greenhead college in 2005 and it's safe to say my life would never really be the same. I instantly liked this girl. She was confident, ballsy, witty and beautiful. Any one who ever met her, fell in love with her. So cheeky, charming, and genuinely good hearted. It became apparent, very quickly that we would become close friends and in fact ended up calling her my 'Wife', and she called me her 'Husband'. I'd never known love like it as far as a friendship goes and she was the one person I would confide in, the one who knew all of my secrets and the first person I would call, should it be good news or bad. This was to be a lifelong friendship for sure! My best friend.
Whilst studying for her A levels, Lucy discovered that she had type 1 diabetes. A lifelong autoimmune condition, which if not treated effectively, can lead to death. There is currently no cure for type 1 diabetes. For more info on type 1, please visit https://jdrf.org.uk/about-type-1-diabetes/
Lucy wasn't deterred by her condition and carried on to lead as normal life as possible and headed off to uni to study to become a primary school teacher. Unfortunately Lucy was never able to fully graduate. Lucy's severe diabetes caused another condition to develop. Gastroparesis - http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gastroparesis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Lucy became so ill with this condition she was hardly ever well enough to leave the house. Bits of her hair started to fall out, which I can only assume was down to malnutrition from the condition, and this bright, amazing woman who was normally full of life, charming everyone she met, became very sad and low, feeling hopeless about the future.
Eventually Lucy was offered a treatment which they had hoped would help with the Gastroparesis. A 'gastric pacemaker' was to be fitted via surgery to help her stomach digest the food it was currently having trouble with. She went and had the operation at the end of 2013 and was in the process of trialling effective settings.
Lucy never got to benefit from the effects of this. On the morning of 15th April 2014, Lucy very suddenly passed away at home in bed from a Heart Arrhythmia at the age of 24. Her death completely devastated all who had ever met her and left a massive hole in all of our lives.
I wanted to do something to raise money for Diabetes type 1 in her memory and try and make it as personal to Lucy as possible!
I came up with this;
1) Lucy loved children. She was going to be a primary teacher, therefore I wanted to help a children's charity.
2) Lucy also loved gingers (hence me being her husband)
Lucy wasn't a massive sports person so it didn't feel personal to run a marathon for her. So what I have decided to do is this.
I have spent the last nearly 2 years growing my hair. Now that it is long enough, I will be cutting off a minimum of 7 inches and donating it to the 'Little Princess Trust' to make wigs for children with cancer. At the same time I am fundraising for the charity JDRF. A Charity dedicated to curing type 1 Diabetes, in the hope that one day, no one will have to go through what Lucy went through.
This one's for you Wifey!! 'You're every line, you're every word, you're everything' xxxxxx