Well I went blank on the reasoning test that, all the other ones I managed quite well. There was some I suppose understanding the meaning of words which I think I didn’t, well I think I didn’t have any problems with it because they didn’t tell us whether we were right or wrong which was a bit disappointing anyway but there was one with reasoning, moving counters which had a blank there for a while and I sort of picked up again. You’re under pressure with time as well I think for certain, so it was quite testing, it was quite testing and I was very glad I was in a booth with nobody watching [laughter].

But they, they didn’t give you a kind of overall kind of
No, no.

core or anything like?

Some of them did, some of them did. There were scores at the end there so you could see how well you’d done or not.

Okay.

But some, some they didn’t so. I think it tied in with the fact that they were going to, you know, unless there was any information that was critical as it were, not critical but serious they weren’t going to give that information it was just going on to the, and that was made perfectly clear so, you know, no complaints about that.

So, obviously they want to see participant’s sort of progress over time, measure what’s going on; whether it’s changed, whether it’s improved, got worse or whatever. I assume that’s going to be part of it because that’s screening several, several probably dozens, if not hundreds of people, in which presumably they’ll arrive at some helpful conclusion as to kidney functions and what, you know, what can be done to help those who are probably less fortunate. I assume that’s the operation or the outcome, yeah.

Well because throughout my life I’ve obviously heard or witnessed, you know, many sort of medical advances which even then there’s my own family have benefited from and obviously it’s all for the good of, say, everyone, you know, not just in the UK but throughout the world, these wonderful breakthroughs in medical technology are achieved and a lot of it’s done by, obviously lots and lots of painful long studies of humans and guinea pigs shall we say, and obviously they can see a pattern.

Like I say, I think it’s important that these studies are carried out not necessarily for my family but for people living in the UK etc. or across the world. So, yeah, I’ve got no concerns about it, so yeah, I carried on with the mission as it were.

I think they explained that it would be a number of blood tests, a number of urine tests, spaced out over six months and then sort of every 12 months thereafter. So oh yeah and doing blood pressure as well and a couple of times, or at least once anyway they give a blood pressure monitor to have here at home and to do myself which was quite interesting. So it all seemed totally, you know, apart from the blood test non-invasive and very easy to do.

Then later on I remember doing little tests, little intelligence tests and things. But you, you sort of take that as the norm really, I mean, I think you, well certainly I did as a child sort of took what came. And I don’t remember much though in my teens to be quite honest whether there’s just so much else going on I don’t know, but I imagine I must have made some input and carried on. I remember it more later when I’d become a mother and there seemed to be a lot then, a lot about diet sometimes the questions were quite invasive because you had to acquire a lot of material, you had to keep a record of your diet for two weeks. You had to write down the recipes if you’d made something. You had to include absolutely everything; it was really detailed. As time has gone by, it’s been very clear that the questions are following a certain line of research and for me it’s, it’s quite interesting I, there was a whole section where they were asking about how hot do you drink your drinks, how cold do you drink your drinks and I think that’s leading to something very specific.

Well we go to see them in the GP’s surgery. it’s definitely down to annual now, I can’t remember how frequent it was before, you’d have to ask them that.

Okay so you don’t, you can’t remember.

It might have been every six months, it might have been every three months, it might have been more frequent, but it didn’t matter, it was all very convenient.

It was convenient for you?

Yes because it was here in the village.

And do you know the results of these tests?

Yes with-, without explanation though
Okay.

hich I would say would, they should do. But they’re, Everything is norma. Yeah, okay, normal for them but which norm-?’ They had graphs as well, so I went back myself, researched it, looked up and what it means, my subcutaneous fat, there’s my visceral fat plus my bone density, yeah.

The feedback is the bigger thing that, as I say, again and maybe more written stuff I understand will be hard for the admin to do too much paperwork but just copy some of the end results maybe in a few lines in a summary, drop it back to the parents, drop it back.

I think it’s just the commitment. You need to give your time, like, you know, I’ve got family, I’ve got kids, I’ve got little ones, I work, I volunteer. Even in my work I volunteer. I do provide massages to elderly people whenever I can. it’s just that you need to commit for the time and sometimes I believe people who are participating into some sort of a research, because it’s a sense of responsibility and it is a commitment, it sometimes it gets overwhelmed if you’re everywhere and if you are, if you’re giving more than sometimes it’s more than what is being required. That is it.