500 Reasons’ 6th Birthday!

We are only as strong as our fellow members and you are each absolutely outstanding human beings! To celebrate we are giving £600 away to three wonderful nominees.

From a selfless little boy who wanted to help a charity that helped his little brother to helping people gain access to a little respite from the horrors of what is happening in Ukraine and lastly an incredible sister who has given her sibling a kidney. 

There are heroes aplenty this week and it’s a pleasure and a privilege to support them. Keep your thoughtful nominations coming in. We can’t do it without you and here’s to another 6 years! 

Lots of loveJoe, Char, Jen and Ray (The admin team) xxxx

Here are the three nominations. First one is from Nathalie:

Hey I would like to nominate my friends son who is raising money for a little unknown (unless you’ve needed it) but valuable charity that look after families when they children are sick in hospital so they can live close by. He is only raising £100 but £500 would blow his mind. Oli his little brother is my hero I adore him, the family went to hell and back last year and for him to survive is nothing short of a miracle. This is Leo’s just giving. He gave me one of his trial cookies for my birthday on Thursday - it was Lush!!! <31bc1598-7b2f-4e2b-8614-15516ef94a09.jpg>Leonardo's HEART SHAPED COOKIE SALE for The Sick Children's Trustjustgiving.com

Next up it’s Val who along with her Mum set up 500 Reasons Ukraine: Dear 500 Reasons team,With Joe Sims’s permission, I am writing to  please nominate Lee Watson, someone we met this week, an incredible human being, who is going back to Ukraine again on Tuesday next week. This week marks a year of the invasion, and although other disasters continue to happen on Earth, such as devastating earthquakes, it is very difficult to fundraise for Ukraine where help is still very much needed.Lee hasn’t had any previous ties to Ukraine, but since the full-scale invasion has been involved in all sorts of aid there, physically going there a lot, for every couple of months, so his last year was very different to all previous years…He is currently fundraising to keep a yoga studio in Lviv, which is in the Western part of Ukraine (safer part) open so that there can continue to be free classes for internally displaced Ukrainians from Eastern Ukraine to come to their senses and heal 🙏🏽 The yoga centre there is currently serving more as a shelter, providing all the necessary basics for newly arrived displaced women and children from Eastern Ukraine.Apparently all they need is £400 a month to keep the studio going, so a £500 donation would be very meaningful ❤️Meeting Lee and talking to him before he’s making a trip again has been very inspiring. He continues to expose himself to the risk that so many Ukrainian young people are exposing themselves day in and day out, going right in where help is needed.Here are some links.This is Lee’s foundation called Fierce calm, that has been supporting a refugees and asylum seekers in London:Yoga saved my lifefierce-calm.comHere’s a recent interview with Lee from just a couple of weeks ago, as he’s come back from Ukraine: Ukraine: Are We Making A Difference Or Just Spitting In The Wind? | Dr. Lee Watson & Radhika Dasyoutu.beThank you for your kind attention to this matter,Grateful to have come across a community of inspiring human beings like all at 500R are 🙏🏽❤️Val

And finally our friend Patch who’s old school friend has just given her sister her kidney and he wanted them both to be able to do something whilst they convalesce so we have given them £250. A friend from my school days was very bravely donated her kidney to her sister this week to enable her to live a full life and not have to rely on dialysis!  I think both of them deserve £500 for a night away, pamper and a meal once they are both fit and well to do so! Message from our recipient on Facebook last week - I am pleased to say just one more session of dialysis and then I am done! The reality is dialysis is necessary as is has kept me alive, it is not a cure, it will have never made me better and it’s not a permanent solution.

Without a transplant I would not live a full life. I have met some wonderful nurses at dialysis and they have all made a pretty awful experience far more pleasant and I will miss them very much. Dialysis takes up to 15 hours a week - it’s like a part time job as well as having a full time job. It is physically and mentally draining. I am incredibly lucky to be as well as I have been as so many of the patients on dialysis are really poorly. Since I started I can’t count on both hands the amount of patients that have passed away. I would be lying to say there have been times where i’ve wondered if this would be my path but i’ve tried not to go there and carry as best I could to live a ‘normal’ life.Thankfully I have a wonderful husband and glad to say he has stuck by his ’in sickness and in health’ vow.

We both have wonderful families and friends, whom without these last 5 years would have been a lot worse. I look forward to lots of things I’ve missed out on and haven’t been able to enjoy like i’d like, holidays, lie in’s, not being exhausted, eating salt, washing my hair in the shower, having a drink the list is endless. But most of all I look forward to being a better Mum.

There is so much I haven’t been able to do for my son in recent years - he never complains and has a wonderful father but I have noticed and this is what I will focus my energy on. He is my world 🌎 Live life to the fullest - everyone says it. very few do it. I hope I don’t take the little things for granted after my transplant as Ive seen life without it and it’s nowhere near as fun.