On 10^th January 2009 my girlfriend, Samantha Thompson, was diagnosed with a rare form of Acute Leukaemia.  Whist we were devastated by the news, Sam’s immense strength of character shone through and in the months that followed she never once faltered in her belief that she would beat this terrible disease.

Sam’s treatment started with her being put on the Bone Marrow Transplant Register with The Anthony Nolan Trust.  Because she had a rare type of bone marrow, her recommended treatment was a course of chemotherapy followed by two-year management programme to keep the disease from returning.

With the help, support and encouragement of the wonderful staff at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Sam was able to enjoy a little freedom between her courses of  chemotherapy which allowed us to travel to Paris for a weekend, go ski-ing at Milton Keyes and have trips to the theatre.  I can’t thank the staff at St. Bart’s enough for encouraging Sam to take these breaks so that, given her difficult circumstances she could, to the best of her ability, enjoy herself.

With the help of the Anthony Nolan Trust a donor was found with a close a match as one could hope for and therefore Sam started along the route of a bone marrow transplant.

St. Bart’s and the Anthony Nolan Trust gave Sam the very best chance of a full recovery, but, there are many complications inherent in any form of treatment for cancer and sadly, because of those complications, Sam lost her fight against the cancer and passed away on 13^th August 2009.

I, together with Sam’s family, my family and our close friends are now determined to raise funds for the charities and staff that helped Sam through her treatment.  They were a source of constant support and never once gave up on her fight for life.   It is for that reason that I have signed up to put myself through a whole world of pain and run in the London Marathon.

Please, I implore you to give as generously as you can and hopefully, some day soon a successful treatment will be found for this dreadful disease.

I thank you so much in advance and I guess I’d better get running.

Stuart.

 

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