I know this last year has been particularly tough, but for our family it has been particularly bad.

Our wee man, Archie, lost his fight with kidney disease in November 2019, aged just 3 1/2, so we have decided to do this in honour of him. 

Archie had Finnish Type Congenital Nephrotic Syndrome, a very rare congenital kidney condition. He was diagnosed at 4 weeks old and spent the first 4 months of his life in hospital. He had to endure lots of types of surgery (including having one of his kidneys removed), a long list of daily medications, being hooked up to a machine to have daily infusions of albumin for hours on end and twice daily injections. He had regular visits to hospital as both an inpatient and outpatient. He had a central line in his chest to get the daily infusions and also a feeding tube where all his medicines were administered and latterly to get daily top-up feeds, as he was very small

Despite all this, Archie was a beautiful, happy, kind, funny, loving little boy. He was passionate about dinosaurs and loved Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Top Wing, Fireman Sam (especially Naughty Norman), PJ Masks (he wanted to dress up as Owlet for Halloween, Owlet is a girl!), Frozen, Snow White (he liked the little men and often sang “Hiii Hoooee” at the top of his voice!) And many other TV programmes and films. He enjoyed visiting the zoo and lions were his favourite animal. His favourite colour was "lion yellow"!. He had a varied taste in music but loved rock music, with favourites of his being the theme tune to the TV programme Sons of Anarchy, Black Betty and Thunderstruck. He liked I'm still Standing by Elton John and loved Jolene (but of course, it had to be the Miley Cyrus Backyard Sessions version).

Archie was due to get a kidney transplant at the beginning of 2020. His dad Chris was his live donor.

Unfortunately Archie got an infection in his central line and developed sepsis. He passed away on 20th November 2019 in The Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

There are currently 850 million people worldwide living with kidney disease. This is not OK. I'm joining the fight to help end kidney disease by completing the #850StepChallenge for World Kidney Day. I'm taking charge and making this year count. I'll be completing 8500 steps a day every day throughout March for World Kidney Day. With kidney disease now being the 10th top cause of death globally, Kidney Research UK has never been more important. Kidney disease ruins and destroys lives. Research is key to transforming kidney health and support is crucial to make this happen. Please donate whatever you can, every £ will help to keep research going and help kidney patients. Kidney disease ends here.