Thanks for popping in!

A month ago, just arrived back on a high from Cannes Film Festival, and my mum phoned me with the news: my dad had been diagnosed with CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia).  Well, what do say to that? 

Your first thoughts are: what can I do?  Fortunately whilst I had been away, family had rallied round and taken my dad for his bone marrow biopsy and various tests and hospital appointments, etc., for which I was really grateful, and realised that I didn’t have to support them solely.

All I could do remotely was look up information on the internet, and be on the end of a phone when they needed someone to listen to their concerns, just talk about rubbish to get their mind off the subject.

Dad had been on his first course of treatment to bring his white blood cell count down, and had his first course of chemo, which he didn’t take too well to, and it was now a choice of whether to go on a clinical trial, or another more traditional chemo route.  His firm decision made, he chose the clinical trial route, as he said: “Well, if it doesn’t help me, it may help other people in the future.”  I felt really proud of his generosity of spirit.

My thoughts also turned to my cousin Andrea, who lost her life to the disease when she was a teenager; at least medicine is always moving on.

It was coming up to my 40^th birthday, and it didn’t feel appropriate to have a big splash on a party in with my friends, with my family missing out.  Dad had a couple of days free from hospital appointments, so I decided to take them out for a big shopping spree this past weekend.  It was really nice just spending time together, and trying to spoil them (which is VERY difficult, if you know my parents). It also dawned on me that at least one of them would not be around to help me celebrate my 50^th birthday.

So what else could I do?  I had wanted to do a parachute jump on my 30^th, then my 40^th, and then I thought I could do it to help others.

So, on behalf of all current and future leukaemia sufferers, I thank you in advance for whatever you are able to contribute.  And you can come and see me do the jump in Maidstone if you like!!! (Saturday, 29th August)

Blessings to you.

 

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