I painted this portrait because I wanted to show a personal, vulnerable side to me. It’s taken from a reference photo that I took on one of my first dialysis sessions in Hospital. It was an emotional time for many reasons, I felt scared, bewildered, exhausted and sad but also relived to be getting the treatment as it would make me feel better over time. When I got home after the first few sess...

I was first diagnosed with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) in 2003 out of the blue after a random cholesterol blood test. They told me my kidneys were working at 30%. I didn’t really understand what this meant at the time, as a young person, I was fortunate not to have any symptoms throughout my illness, including the year I spent on dialysis in 2009-2010.On 28th December 2010 I got multiple phon...