Sixteen-year-old Faten Ala’ Al Deen from Idlib has grown up in Syria with both ongoing crisis and her own critical health condition.

She said: “I was forced to leave school when I was 12 as I suffer from kidney failure and I could not continue my studies. I was exhausted and sometimes collapsed.

“My life completely changed. I couldn’t even play with my friends. All that mattered were the dialysis sessions to keep me alive.”

For Faten, it was extremely difficult to access treatment as most health centresin her area were destroyed in the  crisis.

The only remaining dialysis centre in northern Syria’s Aleppo province was poorly equipped and didn’t have enough chairs for patients.

Islamic Relief donations of €100,000 over the past three years  have funded medicines, staff salaries, fuel and maintenance costs. The support has also allowed the health facility to provide dialysis sessions  for almost 9,000 patients with chronic and acute renal failure in northern Syria.

“I was about to die, but thankfully Islamic Relief supported this dialysis centre and now I can get dialysis sessions twice a week as doctors recommended,” said Faten.

“I’m just happy that I can still survive.”