DANIELLE'S GIFT

Ruth Braddock, 67, is determined her daughter's Christmas spirit will live on

- LOUISE BATY

Peeling a shiny bow off a brightly wrapped parcel, my daughter Danielle stuck it to her head and laughed. It was Christmas Day 2002 and Danielle, then 12, was entertaining me, her sister Sarah, then 25, and stepdad Tony, 47.

'Today's the best day of the year," Danielle whooped. Like most families, we'd open gifts around the tree, followed by roast turkey, games and the Christmas specials on TV. Every year was the same and as she got older, Danielle's love of Christmas only grew.

Only, in December 2009, aged 19, she wasn't her usual festive self, yawning as we strung up fairy lights. She opened her gifts on Christmas morning, then spent the day dozing on the sofa. In fact, she was exhausted well into the new year.

Working full-time for an insurance company, then busy seeing friends the rest of the time, I wondered if she was overdoing it. She was also so thin and gaunt that I was concerned she had an eating disorder. 'I'm worried,' I said, taking her to the GP in January and again in February. The doctor said it was probably a 'teenage phase', but Danielle was adamant she was fine. 'I don't have issues with food, Mum,' she said as her weight continued to plummet. She suffered sickness and diarrhoea, too.

When we saw a different doctor in April 2010, she was given a blood test. And that night, the GP called and told us to take Danielle to hospital. There, she needed an urgent blood transfusion and after that a consultant came to her bedside. 'Danielle's in end-stage renal failure,' she said.

She had chronic kidney disease, her blood pressure was dangerously high and she had severe anaemia. Doctors couldn't believe she was alive. 'A few more hours and she wouldn't have been,' the consultant said.