Back In

Just a quick blog to let you guys know that I have been back in hospital for the last week just generally feeling rubbish and my weight down to 35.9 kg . However I was able to get home for the night last night so that is always a positive. Don't really know when I will get out however they are talking of keeping me here until I put a sufficent amount of weight on so that I can get on the list. As much as I dont like that idea part of me is telling me to go with the idea because at the minute we are sitting in limbo with my weight not going anywhere. So if it was to move things forward I might just do it for a while. Anyway I will keep you all up to date anyway and thanks again everyone for your continuing support and prayers

Char

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Hello

Sorry for lack of updates.

Things are going well. I am just out of hospital yesterday after just being in a week. I just hadn't been feeling great at the end of last week so with some precusion from mum and dad I rang and they were able to see me rather than waiting and maybe getting worse therfore having to spend longer in hospital. So all and all it worked out well and I even managed to get out for a wee while both on the Sunday and the Wednesday. So I can't really complain :)

Everything is remaining steady with the main issue still being my weight but we are working on it. I am still on IV antibiotics but to be honest I think that is just going to be a way of life for me at the minute because as soon I come off them I just go down hill rapidly and to be honest I want to be able to stay as well as I can so that I can work on gaining weight and getting on that list. So now my new hobbie is just going to have to be to eat all around me lol :)

Seriously though thank you so much to you all out there who I know are remembering us and praying for us. I actually do not think I could get through any of this without you, God or my amazing family. Trust me as I have learnt in the last few months it's times like this where you really feel God's hand upon you.

Project wise things are continuing along nicely. We are still pushing towards the £100,000 and I firmly believe that we will reach our new target. Also we are in talks with Fields of Life in Uganda to begin the building of Hidden Treasure. It is actually so exciting and I would defintley say that with in a few months we will start to see the new school coming together!!! Isn't God good?

I Can't believe I'm Posting This!!!!!

Ok I'm not going to waffle (probably the first time ever :)) but what I do want to say is never in a MILLION years could I have seen myself writing this post in January 2010. Let me just tell you a little of how this came about. As a lot of you know my health has detoriated greatly over the last eighteen months or so. April/May 2009 was a particulary bad time and the whole transplant issue had just been brought up (something which I personally really was not expecting) So anyway one evening mum dad poppa david and the girls came and took me out to Nandos @ Victoria Square(seriously in the Barr household food makes everything better!!!) and basically the topic came up of building a school in Uganda for the kids out there that don't have the luxury of going to school. Well let me tell you I went back to the City Hospital that night and could not sleep at all I was that excited about the plans.

July 2009: I was unable to go to Uganda with the rest of the family and instead spent a lovely summer in the city hospital. This is where they found the school Hidden Treasure and between facebook, emails and telephone calls between us we knew that this was the right school to build. I mean just take a look at the classroom

So I then started this blog at the end of August with a view to keep people up to date with my progress healthwise but also with the fundraising efforts and the building of Hidden Treasure Primary school.

So at present I am just home from hospital today after just a ten day stay and am feeling really good. Thanks to everyone on this blog it is thanks to you that I am feeling as good as I am because I was coming home to the news that....

Charlene's Project has raised the necessary £70,000. I actually do not know what to say apart from a MASSIVE thank you to every single one of you for your prayers, donations and support I could never in all my life have imagined that we would have the money in in the space of just five months. Isn't God great. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

So what now? Well we have been in talks with Fields of Life who are ready to start building right away. However we have been advised that it is best for the school to have a well so that the children and community can have an outlet for water and also teachers accommodation so we have moved the goal posts and are now aiming for £100,000 to meet these extra requirements and I know we can do it.

Thanks Again to absolutley EVERYBODY

God Bless as the Ugandans would say God is good all the time All the time God is good.

A Quick Hello

First of all thanks to my dad for finishing the blog that I had started before I went back into hospital.

I am indeed back in for a little while but cannot really complain as I enjoyed a lovely 2.5 months out of the place :) My best record in well over a year. Unfortunately I had to come back in as after just a week off IV antibiotics my lungs decided they didn’t want to play that game anymore and enjoyed the way the IVs made them feel. I was quite hopeful when I came off them but unfortunately my chest declined rapidly without them which is a bit disappointing but I guess it just means I’m going to have to stay on IV antibiotics pretty much until I get my transplant. Also in that week that I was unwell I lost a load of weight so I have been working on that and am as determined as ever to reach that 40kg.

I do have to say that the time I enjoyed out of hospital was fantastic and I had the BEST Christmas ever with my family even managing (as dad has said) to get to Center Parcs which right up until we were due to go was looking doubtful but I managed it and had a fabulous time.

The school project is just going from strength to strength with the total at around £62,000 seriously a MASSIVE thank you to each and everyone of you out there when I was starting this project I could have never imagined it would come together like this. God truly works miracles. We recently had a meeting with Fields of Life with the view to start building pretty soon. I am seriously so excited and just have a mental picture of all these little children walking into a proper building of a school for the first time ever and its thanks to the generosity of you guys.

Ok its probably time I headed to bed but as I leave you tonight I ask that you please remember the people of Haiti. These people had nothing to start with and there country has just been turned upside down by such disaster. Just please pray that they will continue to find more survivors. Thank you and goodnight

Love

Charlene

Christmas and much more

Firstly I am SO sorry that this blog has not been updated in what seems like forever.I promise with the new year that my blog will be updated more frequently. However the reason for this is not that I have been in hospital but that I have been busy with Christmas and that.

I am just looking back on the blog and realising that my last entry was the night before the Dolly Walk.

Well what a success that was with 150+ women turning out to walk around Lurgan at midnight with over £12,000 being raised on the night.Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the walk and I think it is safe to say a good night was had by all. Also a big thank you to Lurgan college hockey teams who on the morning of the Dolly Walk postponed their scheduled matches in order to the their own walk. Thank you.

Waringstown Primary school also hosted their own successful walk which rasied over £5,000. Amazing.

So many other individuals, schools, churches and businesses have supported me and sent donations or done fundraisers.
Christmas has come and gone and we had a lovely Christmas at home.

I was even well enough after Christmas for us to make the trip to England with the family. We all love Center Parcs and the weather was brilliant with plenty of snow making everything beautiful. We had a great time.

I cannot thank you all enough for all your support.
All your help in so many ways is appreciated more than I can say. God bless you all.

PS Charlene was readmitted to hospital after writing most of this. She had her longest spell out of hospital in well over a year - 8-9 weeks. She only had about a week off intravenous antibiotics after being on them 3 months and unfortunately was getting more chesty again and all the hard work of getting her weight up was quickly being undone. She is back on intravenous antibiotics so hopefully will pick up again quickly. Thanks for your ongoing thoughts and prayers. Dickie

A Good Day All Round

Just a quick update on how my appointment with the transplant folk went today.

Obviously I have been suspended from the list since I got that stupid abcess about three months ago and the risk of it bursting during the operation would have been too great to take(trust me to do things in style huh?) The team from Newcastle wanted to review me to see what the situation was with the abcess and my weight.

All and all they were pretty happy with me and although the folk from England had not seen the results from my repeat CT scan the general feeling from the doctors here is that the stupid thing has decreased significantly in size. So what they are going to do is go back over to England and discuss the results with the rest of the team but certainly he can't see why if it has decreased I won't be put back on the list in the next few weeks as long as I continued to put on weight. On that front things are going well and I am at the 38kg mark which considering the way I was a few weeks back is a miracle. Seriously if there is anyone out there that doesn't believe there is a God take a look at my story. He is seriously just working miracle after miracle in my life now.

Things are now all set for the dolly walk which takes place tomorrow night and a BIG thank you has to go out to all the staff and pupils at Waringstown Primary School who had their own walk today THANK YOU SO MUCH

Char xx

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry I'm only getting around to blogging now but things have been hectic (well for me anyway)

I am now out of hospital five weeks today and my dream of avoiding being in before Christmas is beginning to look more like a reality. Now that I have been doing so well I am enjoying more trips out which I am really enjoying and I am defintley getting into the Christmas spirit. I had my CT scan today however I will not get the results until Friday when I have the clinic appointment with the transplant team from Newcastle. Please pray that the abcess will have significantly decreased in size/disappeared as this will be the main factor on whether I make it back onto the list or not.

Project wise things are going fantastically well with the total now over £31,000. The dolly walk is coming up this Saturday night and so I am looking forward to that. So any women out there who fancy a good night out we will be meeting at Dollingstown from 11pm and setting off to walk to Lurgan and back. On the dolly walk I have been busy getting it out there as I can and was lucky enough to have the lovely Tara Mills from BBC newsline come down and film me for a piece ( terrifying!!!!) and then on Monday morning I set off nice and early (well 10am :)) for an interview on U105 with Pamela Ballentine which was an experience lol actually seeing inside a radio studio was pretty cool. I will try and get both interviews up on the website

So all and all things are going well. Thanks so much to everyone who is continuing to support the project and I promise I will do an update sometime over the weekend after the Dolly Walk.

Char
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