A mum-of-four with kidney disease is struggling to afford the electricity for her life-saving dialysis machine because of the soaring price of energy.
Andrea Reavill, 53, first received her new kidney in 2007 which was transplanted from a deceased donor.
However, the kidney has failed over the last three-and-half years, meaning she has to be on dialysis for 12 hours each day at home.
She has to find nearly double the money she used to spend on powering the life-saving machine due to rising energy bills.
Although the NHS provides the machine and the fluids to keep her body from filling up with fluid, she gets no assistance with the bills to power the machine, GrimsbyLive reports.
Her monthly bill went up from around £80 to £124 last month, and with the increase in electricity bills expected in October and a further rise coming next January, she is worried about how she'll be able to afford it.
The stress is adding to her worry over her condition, a hereditary kidney problem that also affects her two sisters while her dad, Stuart Farmery, suffered from it too.
Two of Andrea's four children also have polycystic kidney disease.
Andrea and her sisters say it is a lottery as to whether the condition is passed onto offspring.
Andrea, who has been off work from her job as a teaching assistant at Holton-le-Clay Junior School since November, stays at her home in Grimsby almost all the time.
"I try not to watch the news when it is about energy price rises, because it is so depressing," she said.
"All kidney patients feel the cold more than most so I have to have heating. But now it will be a choice between heating or shopping for food.
"I am quite savvy about shopping. But the heating will have to be limited and I will be wearing layers and using blankets as I am all the time cold."
She said she will be contacting local MPs and councillors to campaign for financial support for kidney patients like her.
"Everyone is surprised we do not get financial support like other patients," she added, "but no one is doing anything about it."
She faces having to make three trips per week to hospital in Hull for haemodialysis. Transport to the hospital costs around £200 a time in taxis or by ambulance.
"By having dialysis at home it is saving the NHS," she said.
"But it is increasing the bills at home and they are going to get much higher because I have to run the machine 12 hours a day."
Andrea hopes that, after suffering peritonitis three times in the past year and other complications including low blood pressure and anemia, she will soon be able to go back on the transplant list for a new kidney.
When she got her new transplanted kidney in 2007 she hoped she would be like her late father Stuart who had his transplanted kidney for 30 years. Again, it is a lottery when it comes to how long a kidney will last. Some kidney patients are on their fourth new kidneys.
During the Covid pandemic, many transplant operations were halted due to pressures on the NHS. Transplant operations are underway again and Andrea is hoping she will get a match with an organ donor. Son Christian offered one of his kidneys but his blood group does not match Andrea, who is an "O" type.
"It is 12 hours on dialysis and I have not got a choice," she said.
Andrea was thrilled by the arrival of her first grandchild, Jackson, seven weeks ago. As well as campaigning for financial support for patients on dialysis at home, she also wants people to be more aware of organ donation.
"It is difficult when you lose a loved one to then have to hold discussions about using kidneys and other organs. But it saves lives. I am doing all I can after three-and-a-half years on dialysis. I have to put on my big girl pants and get on with it. All the staff who look after patients at Hull and Grimsby are brilliant," she added.
Due to the large volume of fluid she has to have pumped through her body over 12 hours every day, Andrea accumulates a vast amount of cardboard packaging from the boxes of fluid. She is on first name terms with the staff at Grimsby Recycling Centre on Pyewipe, who all greet her each week.
She has to follow a strict diet to lessen the amount of potassium in her body which means no bananas, tomatoes, mushrooms berry fruit, and cake or chips. She and her family have not had a holiday together for years. Although she was able to go camping and has enjoyed trips to France and Turkey with her dialysis machinery in previous years.
Andrea also praised her children for their support and youngest daughter Lottie carries boxes for her and makes cups of tea when she is at home. She still manages to cut her grass at home, though it becomes the only task of the day due to tiredness.
If she can get a match with a donor or can continue with dialysis, she hopes to return to her school.
"I miss them all," she added.
"I love my job but have not been able to be back since November."
