‘I’m getting Fit in Feb to give back to Alder Hey – and to give my son the chance of a normal life’

A St Helens mum is preparing to Get Fit in Feb and take up the challenge to walk 84km next month to raise money for Alder Hey.

Linda Pickavance is undertaking the fundraiser as a way of giving back to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital who, she says, saved the life of her son, Thomas, when he was diagnosed with multicystic dysplastic kidneys at nine months old.

“Without Alder Hey I don’t think my little boy would be here now,” Linda says.

But there’s another reason why the 41-year-old mum-of-three is taking on the challenge: “I’m being tested to see if I can donate one of my kidneys to Thomas to give him the chance of a normal life.

“If I can, I want to be as fit as I can for him.  Like any mum, I would do anything for any of my children, and I want to be the best I can for Thomas.”

Linda, who also has two other children, Alesha, seven, and Amelia, four, with partner Christopher, had a normal pregnancy with Thomas and, while a heart murmur was detected soon after he was born, it was hoped that would resolve itself and everything would be fine.

But concern started to grow when he failed to put on weight.

“Everything had been okay in pregnancy with Thomas – he even arrived on his due date! – and even when we were told he had a heart murmur, doctors just thought he’d grow out of it,” explains Linda.

“We were sent home, but Thomas struggled to put on weight.

“I was feeding him every two or three hours for six months, and he started putting on weight. But when I reduced his milk to get him started on food it began to drop off, and he became very poorly.”

Linda was referred to Alder Hey with Thomas who’s two on January 19, and he was diagnosed with multicystic dysplastic kidneys. MCDK is a congenital condition that occurs when kidneys don’t develop normally in the womb, and results in a mass of fluid-filled cysts instead of normal kidney tissue.

It means his kidneys don’t work properly to perform their usual functions, including filtering blood to remove waste products and extra water from the blood (which then form urine), regulating blood pressure, and helping to produce red blood cells.

Thomas’s condition has been managed by food and medication, with surgeons performing a gastrostomy so Thomas could be fed directly through a tube into his stomach.

Medics tried twice to insert a catheter into Thomas’s abdomen to remove waste from the blood –peritoneal dialysis – but for Thomas this wasn’t a success.

Now his best chance to have a normal healthy life is to have a kidney transplant.

Linda and her glassworker partner Christopher, 42, are currently being tested to see if they could be a match.

“And that’s why I want to do the Get Fit in Feb Challenge for Alder Hey,” says Linda.  “I’m fairly fit already.  I’m a cleaner and I walk miles every day in my job, but I want to be even healthier in case I am a match for Thomas to give a transplant the best chance possible.

“And I want to give something back to Alder Hey to say thank you for what they’ve done, and continue to do, for my little boy.”

The Get Fit in Feb Challenge by Alder Hey Children’s Charity is asking everyone who takes part to raise money by covering a distance of 84km – or just over 52 miles – throughout the month.

It’s a drive to get people fitter at the start of the New Year AND collect vital funds for them.

“I won’t be running or cycling,” says Linda, “but I will be walking on top of what I already do, and I plan to walk to work which is two miles there and two miles back, and on the days when I’m not at work, go walking near home.

“It was so frightening when Thomas was first diagnosed. I didn’t know whether I was going to lose him, which was a thought I couldn’t bear.

“Thanks to Alder Hey he is still here. They are always there for us, and I can relax knowing he’s in such safe hands.

“It is a worry of course, but they are doing everything they can and so am I – for them and for Thomas.

“Me and Christoper did the Oli Challenge at Knowsley Safari last year and we’ll do it again this year – and I’m doing the Get Fit in Feb Challenge.

“Thomas is the cutest, loveliest little boy who just gets on with everything but it’s tough for him. I’ll do everything I can to give him the chance of a normal life – and to thank Alder Hey for making that possible.”

You can support the challenge for Alder Hey here.

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