Seeing as I have done a series of beauty posts, I thought I would slip in a more personal post to mix things up a bit and maybe make anyone reading this feel like they know me a bit better. As I have said before, I am from a pretty big fam with 3 sisters and one brother (my two older sisters are half-sisters, and they have another half-sister and half-brother who aren't related to me ... pretty complicated). I absolutely love coming from a big family, and love them all loads but the point of this post is to talk about my eldest sister. She is called Hannah and she is 34. She also has cystic fibrosis. This is quite a difficult subject for me to talk about but also one that is quite prominent in my life. Up until fairly recently, she has been ok and even ran a half marathon which is pretty inspirational, but, unfortunately recently she has been really struggling. She is constantly getting chest infections, and is in and out of hospital. The hardest part of loving someone with this disease is seeing them deteriorate and struggle, and knowing that it is only going to go downhill. My whole life, I have been acutely aware of my loved one's mortality, and consequently I'm a bit of a worrier to say the least :) Until recently, we thought the only option for Hannah was a double lung and heart transplant but there is now hope she might be able to get a place on a gene therapy trial which could change her life. I don't want this post to be morbid, but I wanted to share a little bit of me and some of that is how inspirational my sister is to me, so here are some family pics :)
L-R - Top row - My dad, my brother, my sister's husband
Middle row - My mama, my little sister, me, my other sister and her wife (I'm sure I will tell the story of how I discovered she was lesbian at some point ... it's a bit of a cracker :) )
Bottom row - GEORGE! (my nephew), Hannah and my little sister's boyfriend xxx
Unfortunately, my boyfriend was mia that day :(
Sorry about the quality of the top photo, but it's the only one I've got of the whole family together. Hannah is the short, blonde one :) and George is her little boy (also short and blonde). I cannot explain how proud and amazed I am that she managed to get through pregnancy, and have a healthy baby and be healthy-ish herself afterwards. SO proud. Last year, I decided to run a half marathon that's how proud :) it tested my love for her that's for sure.
Anyway, my ramblings are supposed to make the point that my sister pushes me to be better everyday, and to make the most of life, and I refuse to imagine life without her. She's a pretty incredible woman!! :) Another point, was that if you, or someone you know, are suffering from CF or a similar disease, you can still do so many things in your life (within reason, although my sister would probably argue not). My dad was told when she was born that she wouldn't live past 4, she is now 34 and has had a pretty remarkable life, and managed to get married and have a beautiful little boy.
So now you know a little bit more about me and my life, and I hope it provides a little bit more depth to this blog.
xxx
