Pritchard family honour Kim

Carol Finning and her family have begun a fundraising challenge in honour of Kim Pritchard. Here's their story in Carol's words:

"In September 2010, our family lost a very dear lady, Kim, aged just 41. Kim was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension at age 16 and this necessitated a heart and lung transplant in 1996. This helped to give her extra years, enabling her to fulfil many dreams, the best of which was her daughter who was born in 1997.

Kim had a second heart and lung transplant in 2001 and also a triple heart bypass in 2007. Over her 25 years of ill health, she was supported to a first class level by the transplant team at Papworth Hospital and to them we are indebted. It only seemed right therefore to embark on some fundraising to give a little back to a world class care centre.

We set the ball rolling with a quiz night in November and despite lots of cheating, there was a clear winning team who won a huge tin of choccies! The quizzes were great fun and a really easy way to raise funds. A friend ran a jewellery stall and she willingly gave us the profit from the night and others kindly donated prizes for the raffle. In one night we raised £500.

My sister is a keen amateur photographer and takes stunning photos. We encouraged her to do something worthwhile with them and the Papworth calendar was born. We quickly sold the first run of 125 and had to order a 2nd print which sold out. We are grateful to Helen in the transplant team at Papworth who kindly took 20 to sell in the hospital. As she said in her letter, lots of people saw that the calendar was dedicated to Kim, and this made lots of them want to buy immediately. Kim had clearly left her mark. The final total for the calendars was just over £800.

My brother, Kim’s husband, wrote a very poignant poem about Kim. Many people asked for a copy and then kindly donated towards our fundraising too.

We are delighted with our first attempts to raise funds. Events to follow include a charity golf day, promises auction and my daughter is also running the Great West run - not bad considering she's in her final year at Uni and is studying hard."

Papworth Hospital Charity would like to say a big thank you to the Pritchard family who have already raised an incredible £1,500 in memory of Kim. We wish them all the best of luck with their continued fundraising!