Maggie Lomas was the eldest of four children. She was a science teacher and mostly taught chemistry to GCSE and A level pupils, she taught in Shropshire, Poole, Macclesfield and
In 1996 Maggie was diagnosed with Kidney failure. She received great care from St James Hospital in Leeds but after several months had to have dialysis three times each week. Although life saving the treatments limited her life considerably, she could not work or go on holidays, and she caught several infections. In 1999, due to a family’s great generosity in deciding to donate the kidney of a relative who had died, she received a Kidney transplant on her 35th birthday! This enabled Maggie to have 16, happy and healthy years where she was able to work and travel. She travelled to New Zealand, Australia and USA and became a chemistry tutor- work, which she loved.
She was a great personality loved by all her family and her numerous good friends, sadly she died in March 2016 after catching fungal pneumonia.
Due to the generosity of strangers, Maggie enjoyed many years of normal living. Maggie’s friends and family wanted to raise money in her memory for Kidney Research Yorkshire; this would, hopefully, enable others to be given the chance that Maggie had.
Initially the family wanted to raise £2000 but to date have raised £7001.34! this was achieved through a variety of fundraising events with the premise of taking £10 and investing it to make more. There have been cake sales at schools, Coffee mornings, afternoon teas,Christmas stalls, a half marathon and selling recipe books which included recipes from Maggie. Maggie’s Tenner has brought people together, raised awareness of the importance of organ donation and the great work that Kidney Research Yorkshire are doing.
Few words from Richard about their half marathon experience…
“Our training was going well until Jill sprained her ankle playing netball and was advised not to run. She was really worried about not being able to do the half-marathon, but had a scan and was advised that if she strapped her ankle up, she wouldn’t cause any further damage.
The weather on the day was perfect for running, cool and no wind. The course is about as flat as you can get near Sheffield as it is on the Monsal Trail, a disused railway line and we were raring to go. So many supportive people sponsored us, our total was up to about £1250 which was amazing.
The race was limited to 350 people as the trail stays open to the public, so we had to negotiate families out walking or cycling, dogs etc, but it was a very friendly race.
Well, we completed it. I limped over the line as my calf went just after 8 miles, but I managed to get running again, with a bit of walking and limping. Job done! Very happy!“ – Richard
Visit: justgiving.com/fundraising/helen-shearer1 to find out more and/or to donate .