As many of you will know, last September Laurie was admitted to hospital and was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia and PNH, serious autoimmune conditions which mean his bone marrow is not functioning. He’s now waiting on test results to determine whether he’ll be having a bone marrow transplant.

Over the last 7 or 8 months, he’s been constantly in and out of hospital for treatments, regular blood and platelet transfusions, and he’s also had some severe infections. His life has been turned upside down by this illness: he’s been unable to work and he also has to be very careful with hygiene and diet in order to reduce the risk of infection – so he can’t do all of the things he would normally do.

Laurie has been really positive and brave throughout the whole process, but I’m sure you can imagine how difficult and upsetting the whole experience has been for him and the people around him.

His boss has been very generous and understanding, but unfortunately now his statutory sick pay is ending and his income will be going down to nothing.

Many of our family and friends have asked us if there’s anything they can do to help, and your support and kind words have meant so much. We know there are a lot of causes close to people’s hearts, but if you’ve wanted to do something for Laurie and didn’t know how you could help, this is one way. Laurie and Jess have some money set aside as they’ve been saving for a deposit on a house, but we don’t want them to have to give up on that because of his illness. So, we’d like to raise some money to help relieve some of the stress and strain of losing his income. A little goes a long way, and anything you can give would really be appreciated.

Also, while it might not help Laurie directly, please consider giving blood and platelets and joining the bone marrow register.