Our Stories

Amanda's Story

I was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome after a serious heart attack at the age of 44 in September, 2011. I have always been a healthy, active person and have followed a vegetarian diet since I was 20. I live in a ski resort in France.

The winter of 2011 passed normally with me participating in all my usual activities:  Skiing, pilates, art classes, working full time as a secretary and looking after my family. I was pretty busy as you can imagine.  After the end of the winter season, in May, I was participating in a pilates class and hurt my back at the level of my kidneys. Being quite an active person, I'm used to aches and pains so just waited for it to go away. A month later it was worse; I was very tired and couldn't walk far without having to stop for a rest. I began to wonder if it wasn't muscular but perhaps really my kidneys. I made an appointment with my local doctor who did a dip test on my urine and told me I had a urine infection because there was blood and a lot of protein in there.

I thou