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One weekend in 2014 I inexplicably started feeling extremely tired, and had excessive nausea and back pain. When the hospital X-rayed me, I was sent immediately to the oncology department: I was close to kidney failure, and had to undergo a plasmapheresis, which is the removal, treatment, and return of
blood plasma to the blood circulation, due to the high levels of plasma.

The doctor told me I had myeloma and that my bones were so damaged that I risked spinal compression if I ran, rather than
walked, and forbade me from lifting more than 2 kilos in weight. I had broken 2 ribs, another sign of the number of lesions, or holes, in my bones.  I spent three months undergoing preparatory chemotherapy before being admitted to hospital for high-dose chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant. I spent nearly four weeks in a sterile room while my immune system recovered sufficiently for me to be allowed home. The side
effects of the stem-cell transplant and high-dose chemotherapy are awful. The hair-loss didn’t bother me; but the mouth sores and nausea were difficult to bear.

After eighteen months, I was declared to have had a very good response to the treatment and was given the option to stop treatment whilst in remission. In the following 12 months I had 2 bouts of pneumonia and also shingles, together with a few other minor infections. However, for the last year I have felt almost as well as before my diagnosis.

Living in a small country like Luxembourg I do not personally know anyone else suffering from myeloma and so the help, support and advice that the Myeloma UK nurses provided was extremely useful for me. I receive their monthly newsletter and read about new drug development on their website.

I would like to support Myeloma UK more than by just making my annual donation. The more money that they raise to support new research, the more likely that new drugs will be developed that will prolong my life and that of other sufferers.