Dear Friends,

As you may or may not be aware, my brother Jamie is a 24 year old, married father of three. Within the passed 2.5 years, he has returned to a fit and healthy 12 stone from an almost 23 stone at the end of 2005.

Between the 5th and the 9th May, Jamie completed 78 miles on the cross trainer in the gym and was extremely fit and well.

After feeling tired over the weekend of 10th & 11th May, which was written off as fatigue, bruises began to appear. On Wednesday 14th May, his bruising became worse and blood spots began to appear in his mouth.

After speaking with the NHS help line, he decided to go to Basildon hospital at around 6am where he was tested and found out that he has a bleed in his head and in fact has Leukaemia.

Jamie was transferred to St Bartholemew's Hopsital, London, within 6 hours of arriving at Basildon and diagnosed with an acute type known as Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia, known as APL (a strand of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia - AML).

During the early evening of Thursday 15th May, Jamie's eye sight began to deteriorate and on Friday 16th May he was blind. Further scans were taken of his brain and this identified that the bleed was still there, and a clot had also appeared.

An additional scan was scheduled for Saturday morning, and whilst waiting for this during the night Jamie suffered with a stroke which paralysed the left side of his body, affecting his speech and his mind. At this stage, he was heavily sedated and moved into intensive care to address the brain damage, and continue to treat the Leukaemia.

We, as a family, have been informed that the situation is bleak and doctors have suggested that they "think" that Jamie will not recover. Saying this, we must now pray and hope that this is not the case. Please join us in doing so.

Speaking with Jamie on Thursday 15th May between bone marrow tests and chemotherapy he has asked me for just one thing – To raise awareness of Leukaemia.

Considering myself as a relatively intelligent person, I was shocked with how little I actually knew about this. Please take some time out yourselves to take a look at this:

The sheer speed and aggression of Jamie's condition has been unheard of. As part of Jamie's wish for awareness, please feel free to forward this on to anyone that you know. It is with much regret that I am sending this email anyway, but this will give great comfort to my family that we are satisfying one of Jamie's wishes.

Irrespective of Jamie's experience with Leukaemia, we (as a family) will now switch our attention to raising awareness of Leukaemia as per Jamie's request. We are not looking for sympathy or comments but just want people to be aware. This disease can affect anyone.

Jamie himself has volunteered to be part of two case studies, irrespective of the outcome, of which he continues today. And in the future, we as a family will be looking to raise awareness with a multitude of projects and events. Please keep an eye out for these, and feel free to do your own. I have today set up a Facebook group called "The Jamie Saunders Leukaemia awareness group" for those that are interested.

Thanks for all your support and kind words so far.

Take care.

Wesley Saunders

07813 646368