Diary of a Kidney Warrior: do or die

NOTE: This article was first published in Summer 2020 in Issue 9 of our Kidney Matters magazine

My renal consultant told me I was six months away from dialysis. My immediate response to this was, “Oh no, I’m not.” I was defiant and I wasn’t going accept this as my fate. He then told me that my BMI was too high for me to be placed on the transplant list and I sat there and thought, “God forbid I ever do need one; I’m too overweight to even be given the chance.”

I left my appointment and experienced all sorts of emotions: anger, fear, dread and then despair. I went to see my health coach and she said something that transformed my thinking, “You have to choose to live.” I sat there and repeated the words, “I choose to live,” over and over again until my spirit was recharged and the defiance came back. I was determined that the weight that stood in the way of my options had to go, and I would fight to get myself as healthy as I could be. The reality for me was that I couldn’t afford to do nothing. I had to do everything in my power to combat dialysis and fight for my own life. It was literally ‘do or die’.

I started slowly by exercising once a week and started sharing my weight loss journey online and encouraging others to train too. I started to eat healthier foods and began to think that everything I ate could either take me towards, or away from my goals. It was worth all of the sacrifice. I slowly built up to training four times a week and over the Christmas period I completed my first 10-day challenge, where I exercised 10 times in 10 days. I have lost nearly 13kg (2st) so far... and I’m not on dialysis!

Why not join me on my journey?

• Read my blog
• Listen to my podcast

or follow me at:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter