‘She had a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody. She always put other people before herself and she lived for her family – her husband and her girls’
Claire Boland(Image: Claire Boland)
A brave mum-of-two who waited more than five years for a donor kidney has sadly died. Claire Boland, from Stockport, suffered a ‘catastrophic’ bleed on the brain before tragically losing her life on April 4.
The 39-year-old said she had ‘lost all hope’, speaking to the Manchester Evening News last November. Claire had such a rare blood combination that out of 10,000 people, only two would have been a match.
Friends, family and loved ones came forward to be tested, but none were a fit. She suffered a bleed to the brain while out at bingo with her mum and best friend. It has not yet been confirmed whether the bleed on Claires’ brain and her previous health issues are linked.
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She leaves behind husband Damien and daughters Ileana, two, and Elodie, 13; and her wider family.
Claire sent out a desperate plea for a donor just five months ago. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was just eight-years-old. It meant a childhood in-and-out of hospital for ‘weeks on end’.
Around seven years ago, she developed kidney failure that ‘quickly became end-stage’. Claire endured long sessions of haemodialysis; monthly iron transfusions; and trips to the doctor over high blood pressure – all alongside her diabetes care.
“It’s the not knowing that’s so affecting.” Claire said in November. “It’s such a strain on my mental health… my marriage, my children. I spend my days going to and from the hospital for all sorts of different appointments. I don’t feel like I have a life anymore. My life is dialysis.”
Claire, husband Damien, and their children, two-year-old Ileana and 12-year-old Elodie(Image: Claire Boland)
Exasperated, Claire admitted: “Putting out this call is my last resort. I feel like it’s all on me now to find a donor because I’m just having no luck with the transplant and living donor lists. I don’t have any hope anymore. I’m just pleading with people to come forward and get tested.”
Tragically, a suitable donor was never found. Claire’s mum Deborah Kershaw, said: “We went to bingo on March 29 and everything was fine… she was fine. We got a drink and sat down. She was just chatting and laughing with her friend.
“She then went to order some food, came back, and the bingo started. I think they’d literally shouted about two numbers and she just sort of flinched and shouted ‘mum, I’ve got a really bad headache’. She was scrunching her eyes up and she kept sort of falling forward.
“Then I noticed her face had started to droop a little bit, so I said ‘come on, we need to get you home’.” Claire was left unable to move one leg and left arm. When she tried to stand up, she collapsed.
Deborah: “The bingo hall manager ran over and we rang 999. They came straight away and we actually knew one of the paramedics because he’d dealt with Claire before on numerous occasions when she’d had funny turns.
Claire Boland and her husband Damien(Image: Claire Boland)
“So they got her sorted, got her into the ambulance and rushed us straight to Stepping Hill Hospital. They thought she’d had a stroke.
“She was still complaining of horrendous pain in her head, just saying it was really hurting, asking for painkillers. Then she started projectile vomiting.”
‘Not our Claire anymore’
A scan showed a ‘quick, catastrophic bleed to the back of her brain’. Doctors said they unable to do anything due to the location and severity of the bleed.
“If they [had have] transferred her to Salford and operated, she would have passed away on the table. If she did survive the operation, they said she would have been completely brain damaged and she wouldn’t have been our Claire anymore.
“So she was on a ventilator, keeping her going. She was heavily sedated.” Sedation and ventilation was stopped on March 31. Claire kept battling for four more days.
Deborah said: “Claire being the fighter she is, she fought for another four days and she sadly passed on April 4. It was very traumatic. Just very sudden. You know, everything she’s been through, and yet she managed to get through all that, and then it’s a bleed on the brain.”
Claire Boland was ‘a true fighter’, her loved one said(Image: Claire Boland)
Claire’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the costs of her funeral and supporting Damien and their girls.
Deborah said: “Claire didn’t have any life insurance due to her illnesses, so it’s all been a bit of a struggle.” Paying tribute to her daughter, she added: Claire was lovely. She was absolutely amazing. She was always smiling despite her issues. She didn’t let anything get her down.
“She had a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody. She always put other people before herself and she lived for her family – her husband and her girls.
“Her main goal was to go on holiday with the girls. Because of dialysis she wasn’t allowed to go abroad, so she desperately wanted a transplant so she could take her daughters away and have a normal life with them.
“She was always happy. She didn’t let anything get her down. She’d ring me and have a moan like we all do, but she just kept going, kept smiling, kept fighting. She was a true fighter. It’s completely destroyed us. She was my rock. She was my world.
“Her brothers and sister are absolutely devastated. They’ve lost their oldest sister. It’s just hard – you don’t expect it. You go for a game of bingo and someone ends up losing their life.
“We’re just trying to rally around Damien and help with the children with school holidays and things like that. We all work full-time, so we’’e trying to arrange who can take time off and help out. We just want to get as much support as we can for Damien and the girls.”