December 7, 2022 7.00 am This story is over 25 months old

Lincoln artist selling work at fundraising exhibition to support son after serious illness

At one point he went blind for a few days

A sculptor, painter and silversmith living in Lincoln will be selling some of her work at a special exhibition to help support her son, who recently underwent a kidney transplant after two years of severe illness, as well as to raise money for charity.

Nathalie Lomas said her 24-year-old son Ollie woke up blind back in October 2020 just days after having qualified as a chef in Devon.

He had been a “perfectly super fit person before this with zero heath concerns,” his mum Nathalie said, but overnight his life changed forever as his kidneys were failing with no prior warning.

On that day his heart rate rose to 260 beats per minute and his “brain swelled so much that he had bleeds behind his eyes” and he was blind for a few days.

Ollie with his dog Baxter.

Ollie was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit in Exeter where staff at the hospital managed to successfully bring down his blood pressure to save his life. He slowly regained his sight, but his mum then faced the agony of nearly losing her son four times.

Fortunately, Ollie’s father was a match, but the kidney transplant at hospital in Bristol was pushed back from March until August this year due to COVID-related hospital delays.

Due to his remote location in Kingsteignton, the hospital arranged transport to provide him with dialysis ever other day and “without that, he would no longer be with us,” his mum said earlier.

After the transplant operation and recovering from an infection, Ollie now needs to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life. Although he is now recovering well and working at a pub part-time until he is well enough to resume his chef passion full-time, he is feeling the strain from his health issues and having not been able to work many hours for the last two years.

Ollie needs two surgical procedures that his mum says the NHS does not cover, as well as things like a car and driving lessons, but due to him not working in so long she wants to try and ease her son’s financial burden, as well as to raise crucial funds for the National Kidney Federation charity, a cause close to her heart.

Nathalie with her sons and surrogate boys who helped her at an exhibition in Titchfield.

Nathalie works as a PA to Tom Blount, the Director of Lincoln Science and Innovation Park, and it has been agreed for her to have a show in the building in the Think Tank atrium on Wednesday, December 14 (5pm-7pm) to raise funds for Ollie – reserve your space here. The event is only for tenants of Enterprise & Sparkhouse, Think Tank, and the Lincoln Science and Innovation Park.

The event is part of the ongoing IGNITE event series delivered by the Business Incubation team and will showcase Nathalie’s work, as well as raising awareness of The National Kidney Federation’s work. A light buffet of cheese, nibbles and mince pies, accompanied by wine and soft drinks, will also be served.

Nathalie with a publication of her work in 2015.

From the artwork sales and collection buckets, 20% of the proceeds will go to charity and the rest will be used to help Ollie with his recovery back to a normal life. Before Ollie’s transplant operation, Nathalie also set up a fundraiser to help give her son a better quality of life and donations can be made here.

She told The Lincolnite: “This is so important because it’s affected our whole family so deeply. The technology in the hospital was incredible and without funds towards it these charities wouldn’t be able to progress and make people’s lives easier.”

Ollie with his mum Nathalie and his brother Finley.


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