GRIEVING mum Claire Newman, whose son died in December, nine years after she gave him one of her kidneys, has passed the £1,000 mark in her fundraising challenge.

Mrs Newman, 52, is to walk from Devizes to Bath on September 29 in memory of John, who died aged 31, to raise money for Kidney Research and to raise awareness of organ donation.

It is a poignant date as the walk is the day before what would have been John’s 32nd birthday.

So far she has raised £1,115 and is pleased with the amount but she is appealing for businesses and individuals to continue to back her.

Mrs Newman, who has two other grown-up sons, said: “I hope by raising money for Kidney Research and raising awareness about the urgent need for organ donors it may help others not to have go through the terrible heartache we are suffering. John was a great character and a wonderful person to be with. He was very social and had lots of friends.”

Mrs Newman is approaching companies in the Devizes area for sponsorship and hopes the walk with raise thousands of pounds for research. She said: “So far the response has been positive.

“I think about John all the time. I can’t believe he has gone. He is on my mind all day long.”

Mr Newman, who also left behind a partner Tami and young son Kai, had led a normal life until he became ill aged 22 and kidney disease was diagnosed.

The former Lavington schoolboy underwent treatment at Southmead Hospital, Bristol and was on dialysis. His mother immediately offered to be a donor and tests showed she was a perfect match.

She said: “It all went quite smoothly and after only a couple of days you could see that it had made a huge difference to John.”

He went back to living a normal life and eventually moved out of his mother’s home in Market Lavington, met his partner, set up home with her in Melksham and went on to have their beloved son, who is now four.

But when Kai was only about 18 months old Mr Newman started to feel ill again and his regular check ups showed the kidney disease had returned. He went back onto home dialysis and was waiting for hospital treatment. But he died on December 11.

Now both Mrs Newman and Tami, with family members and friends, are to walk from The Wharf in Devizes to Pulteney Bridge in Bath.

To support them visitjustgiving.com/fundraising/claire-newman20