Updated on Sep 30th 2012 at 9:07 AM from the JustGiving API

Redcar Half Marathon day!!!! Setting off at 10am...! Not too late to sponsor if you haven't already!! Wish us luck xxxx

Updated on Sep 29th 2012 at 9:18 PM from the JustGiving API

Thank you so much for the recent sponsors guys:-) very generous!! Keep it coming xxx

Updated on Sep 29th 2012 at 6:27 PM from the JustGiving API

Come on lovely people, get your sponsors in for me sarah and Emma tomorrow running the Redcar Half Marathon! It's for a fantastic cause:-) xxx

Updated on Sep 28th 2012 at 9:33 PM from the JustGiving API

Thank you Kate & Stu for your donation:-) xxx

Updated on Sep 28th 2012 at 12:02 PM from the JustGiving API

Thank you for the very generous donations coming in:-) we are well over target as we never expected all this support! It really is for a great cause and to show Rebecca how much we care and are over the moon she is on the road to recovery. Thanks guys xxxxxxxxxx

Updated on Sep 27th 2012 at 8:41 PM from the JustGiving API

Thank you Claire & Jason patchett and Liam & Diane for your sponsors:-) much appreciated xxx

Updated on Sep 27th 2012 at 5:47 PM from the JustGiving API

Not too late to sponsor us:-) only a couple of days until the Redcar Half Marathon...wish us luck xxx

Updated on Sep 27th 2012 at 5:44 PM from the JustGiving API

Only 2 more days until the half marathon! Sarah and I completed an 11mile run last week so lets hope we can manage the 13miles on Sunday! Not too late to sponsor us:-) every little helps guys...xxx

Updated on Jul 22nd 2012 at 11:38 PM from the JustGiving API

Training going well:-) Completed a 10mile run yesterday with Sarah Harrison and Claire Patchett! Knees suffered a bit today but I now have knee supports for the next one:-) Also update on Rebecca, her bone marrow was tested recently and no leukaemia cells were present:-D Come on Rebecca!!!! Beat this xxxxx

Updated on Jun 12th 2012 at 10:31 PM from the JustGiving API

Wow! Overwhelmed by the sponsor donations coming in! Thank you everyone, really means a lot xxx

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

For those who know me well, you will know that my twins Maelie & Beck were well cared for 4 days per week by an amazing child minder from the age of 10 months old until December 2011.

Darleen Tierney and her family treated Maelie & Beck as part of their own family and they were welcomed by Darleens husband Chris, Daughter Rebecca and son Josh.

On 30th December 2011 I received a devasting phone call explaining that Darleen was unable to care for Maelie & Beck any longer.

Here's the reason why: (by Rebecca Tierney)

Rebecca Tierney’s leukaemia story

My name is Rebecca Tierney and I am 17 years old. In the week after Christmas 2011 I came down with a cold and I went to the doctors on December 29th and on December 30th at half past 11 in the
morning the doctor took a blood test, by 5 o’clock the same day, the consultant from the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle rang
my home to tell us that we had to drive to the RVI straight away,
or they would send me an ambulance.

Once we arrived at the RVI they asked me multiple questions,
such as “are you getting nosebleeds, are you getting unexplained bruises and are you tired a lot of
the time. “More blood tests were taken and at 10pm they came back to tell me I had Leukaemia.
My family and I were devastated. I had to stay in hospital, and I was shown to my room in the teenage cancer unit.  I was never alone, I had nurses and family at my side 24/7.

The next day the hospital staff told me more accurate details about my condition.

I had been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia or AML for short. I was told I would start chemotherapy treatment after the New Year holidays.

My treatment started on 4th January 2012 for 10 days yet I stayed in hospital for 3 weeks, had a bone marrow test on 8th February and was given the results that night I was told I wasn’t yet in
remission. This is when I was also told I had the more aggressive leukaemia and that I have flt 3 which is a defect on the leukaemia chromosome.

Because of this I was told I would have to have a bone marrow transplant because standard chemo alone wouldn’t cure me. I had to have another course of chemotherapy to get me into remission before I could have the transplant, which started on 9th February and I was also put on Sorafinib. This drug had never been used in Newcastle hospital before, so my consultant had to get medical opinions from other doctors in Glasgow and London before proceeding. Sorafinib inhibits the leukaemia chromosome directly and I was on this drug for 28 days.

It worked after another bone marrow test on 13th March I was told I was in remission at last, all the way through my treatment I was in and out of hospital with infections, I had several blood transfusions, platlets, x-rays, c t scans and echos, along with the bone marrow tests and lumba punctures.

A Bone marrow donor was found by the Anthony Nolan foundation, an American man of 23 years so I was admitted to ward 3 the Bubble Foundation on the 25th March. First I had more intensive chemotherapy for 1 week, this is called conditioning where the chemo destroys my own bone marrow. I had my bone marrow transplant on the 4th of April. The effects of the bone marrow
transplant and the chemo made me feel tired, my hair and eye lashes fell out, I got a GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease) a rash all over and I got mucasitus, sore mouth, throat and gut.

I was discharged from ward 3 on the 4th may and since I have been attending ward 14 the oncology ward twice a week for check-ups and medication, so far all is going well. The next step is another bone marrow test on 5th July to find out if I am in remission and that the bone marrow transplant has worked.

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Thanks for taking the time to read the above. 

Darleen and her family have become so important to us Percival/Haslams and if i can help raise money for units that helped Rebecca by dragging myself around the Redcar half marathon then so be it:-)

I have only just started running distances in the past few months so i am no way prepared for a half marathon. Let the training commence!!!

Thank again people, wish me luck :-) xxxx