Pippa Kent recently donated an incredible £1,860 to our Charity. In this week's guest blog, she shares her latest project, Now What Can I Eat? and why giving back to Royal Brompton is so important to her.

Royal Brompton Hospital has been somewhere I, until April last year, had been visiting my whole life.

Although I didn’t have my transplant at Harefield like many Royal Brompton cystic fibrosis (CF) patients - my parents lived in Cambridge making Papworth a much more logical option - it was Royal Brompton who cared for me through my childhood, transitioned me into adult life with CF, became a home from home for various admissions, fought with me to maintain my health as long as possible and when it became necessary, got me to the point that I was well enough to have my transplant, keeping me there until I got the call.

I will always be grateful for the amazing care I received so, when I had the opportunity to donate some money to the Charity it was an easy and obvious decision.

It was only a little over a year after this difficult time in Royal Brompton, a period I and my family will never forget and will always be so grateful for the support we received, and after I was lucky enough to have received and begun recovering from a double lung transplant that I began attempting to create Now What Can I Eat? The Book – a project born out of my transplant journey, the realities of living with immune suppression but also a love of food.

Sadly our initial attempts to raise money to publish the book, backed and with the recipes of over 100 chefs and food personalities inside, was unsuccessful and we are currently attempting to explore other ways of making this book a reality. I still hope that in the future the book will, through the profits of sales being donated to charity, be a resource enjoyed by Royal Brompton and Harefield patients practically as well as providing continued financial support.

While we will not give up trying to make this a reality one positive from the journey was that although formally the money raised from the campaign, around £30,000 of the £58,000 we needed, was returned through the fundraising platform some of those who pledged incredibly generously offered a cash donation which we were able to split between three relevant and hugely worthy charities, including this one.

In total, as well as some fundraising efforts organised for the book including a charity quiz night and a marathon effort from my dad, we raised just under £6,000 – one third of which I have donated to Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity on behalf of Now What Can I Eat?, a small acknowledgement of the amazing care I received and I know thousands of others continue to receive. It is hopefully the first of many donations from us.

You can find out more about Now What Can I Eat at nowwhatcanieat.blog or by following me on social channels @nowwhatcanieat. Please get in touch if you think you could help make the book a reality or would like to support in any way.

Pippa will be cycling from Royal Papworth to Royal Brompton Hospital on 12 April to raise money for both the hospitals which treated her. You can sponsor her here or if you'd like to ride alongside Pippa for some or part of the journey the please email her to register your interest.