When Dominic and Debbie married on October 2 this year, they decided they wanted to remember Dominic’s brother, Matthew, on their special day. Dominic explains why.
My brother, Matthew, was born with biliary atresia, which was diagnosed when he was six months old in 1973. The understanding and treatment of childhood liver disease then was not what it is now, and my parents were told not to expect him to live long. Thanks to the amazing care he received at Kings College Hospital, however, we were lucky enough to have him for 33 years and, as I was less than a year younger than him, we were very close.
Sadly, after two unsuccessful liver transplants within three months of each other, we lost him in 2007, despite all the efforts of Professor Heaton and his team. It was the work of the NHS in taking care of Matthew and giving us all that time with him that was my inspiration to become a nurse. I now specialise as a renal dialysis unit manager.
Debbie (who is also a nurse) and I had both been married before and, when we were planning our wedding, knew that we would rather guests made a donation to CLDF than bought us gifts we didn’t need. CLDF is close to our hearts and, with Matthew not being with us to attend our wedding, it seemed a fitting way to celebrate and include him. He certainly would have been the life and soul of the party!
We all had a wonderful day and were subsequently shocked, amazed and so grateful to learn that our guests had donated £1750 to CLDF. It simply adds to the memory of a happy occasion to know that we’ve done something positive for a cause which means a lot to our family.