John Keegan

John's Football 100 Challenge

Fundraising for Heatherwood And Wexham Park Hospitals Trust General Fund
£1,937
raised of £3,000 target
Donations cannot currently be made to this page
We fund specialist equipment and services to save and improve local lives

Story

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In early 2012, I was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; it’s a cancer of the immune system that's carried within the victim's blood. Although the success rate is good, mine was complicated as it was also found in my spinal fluid!

Over the next eight months I underwent surgery, intense courses of chemotherapy and preventative radiotherapy. Towards the end of the year, I was given the fantastic news that I was in 100% remission: so although the war isn't over - that takes five years - I had won a significant battle.

I managed this with a certain amount of self determination, but much more importantly, through the support, love and prayers of friends and family - who were all incredible, particularly my three beautiful daughters - and the wonderful skills, professionalism and warmth of all the staff at the Eden Cancer Ward & Unit at Wexham Park Hospital.

So how do you thank people for saving your life? It's impossible!! So, I thought I would undertake a labour of love and raise some well needed funds for my friends at the Eden Ward & Unit.

My intention is to attend 100 football matches, in alphabetical order - to include all of the 92 English football clubs, plus Shamrock Rovers in Ireland, Celtic in Scotland, PSG in France, Ajax in The Netherlands, Bayern Munich in Germany, Benfica in Portugal, Real Madrid in Spain and Torino in Italy - hence the 100 challenge. I've estimated that I will travel almost 29,000 miles in achieving my goal.

Once I have worked out the technology, I will attach some photos of my three daughters and three grandchildren, so you can see where I received the inspiration to beat this horrible disease. At the time of my diagnosis, my eldest daughter had her wedding planned for August (which we made) and my second daughter had just found out that she was pregnant and she delivered my second amazing granddaughter on Christmas Eve - a perfect end to an imperfect year – but we made it and I want to help others do the same!

Update August 2014: Well I had just finished celebrating my success, when in July 2013, I was given the dreadful news that I had secondary Acute Myeloid Luekaemia, ironically caused by the chemo that I received to rid myself of the NHL! A bad, bad day!

I was readmitted to Wexham Park and underwent more intensive chemotherapy before being transferred to The Churchill Hospital in Oxford for a bone marrow transplant. Thank you to my little brother Chris for being a match and for volunteering to donate his cells to give me a chance. Thanks to the fantastic medical staff at Oxford, I am now in a good place and feel better than I have done for some time, so fingers crossed and lots of prayers that it's all now behind me. I returned to work at ADP on 1st July and a massive thanks to them for their support and good wishes at a difficult time for me.

So it's back to the 100 Challenge and any support that you give through this page would be greatly appreciated. There are so many people to thank that I could complete another 100 lines on here, so I won't: but you know who you are, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you x 

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About the charity

The charity helps fund medical equipment throughout the trust, and enhances the level of care by financing many courses and education days. It helps improve both patient and staff environments and holds many different funds reflecting the sheer size of the trust

Donation summary

Total raised
£1,936.96
+ £460.00 Gift Aid
Online donations
£1,936.96
Offline donations
£0.00

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