It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of Fr. Theo Thomas (Leti's grandfather) on 11 June 2014 of complications relating to acute myeloid leukaemia.  

https://www.justgiving.com/theothomas

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Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. We have a fundraising target of £80,000 for Leukaemia Research. This is the cost of Leti's treatment (assuming the "basic" treatment for ALL works first time round). Her treatment is paid for by our taxes, but research into leukaemia (and any vaccine/prevention research) is not funded by central government in either the UK or Italy. Therefore, we hope that we can raise the symbolic target amount of £80,000 and funnel it all into Leukaemia Research. If it wasn't for all those fundraisers over the last 30 years raising money for research, Leti would have had only a 5% survival chance, rather than the 85% survival chance that she has today. With further research we can aim for a 100% survival rate, tailored treatment and even vaccination in the years to come. But only if we continue to raise money for research, so your help and generosity is hugely appreciated. Thank you for your support.

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LIST OF RECENT FUNDRAISING EVENTS:

Thank you to the following who have fund raised for Leukaemia Research:

A big thank you to Alex Centrone, Dimitri Christopher and Peter Schmidt for joining Martin Pugsley in raising funds at the Venice marathon on 23 October!

Thank you to Jenny & Theo for raising more funds at the Craft Fair in St. John in Cornwall, Torpoint in June. This is where it all started a year ago...

Thank you to Tom and Lucy Kilroy, and the villagers of Brightwell Baldwin, for raising a massive £504.50 at the village plant sale. Happy gardening!

Thank you to Martin Pugsley who ran the Como half marathon on 15 May in aid of our Italian charity and Leukaemia Research, in 1 hour 56 minutes, and thank you to Max Pugsley (aged 8) who came fourth in the 1km run from Villa Olmo to the Temple of Volta.

Thank you to Amanda and Tom who ran the Rome half marathon on 27 February and raised £1,140.

Thank you to Harbottle & Lewis (and in particular Clare Wooldridge) for choosing Leukaemia Research as their chosen charity for 2011.

Edwina and John Pugsley's coffee morning and jewellery sales raised a massive £1,187 in Milverton over the last week. Many thanks to everyone in Milverton for supporting LLR.

Thank you to the Guinness Family Trust for their £500 donation!

Sponsored head shave: Uncle Simon (Pugsley) shaved his head in aid of Leukaemia Research on Thursday 7 October and raised £840. It's not too late to visit Simon's own Just Giving site to sponsor him. Thank you Simes!

Mountaineer Max raised another £50 climbing Monte San Bernardo (1,351 metres) on Saturday 2 October.

Lavender sale in Bath: Jemima Mills and the boys raised £100 selling bundles of lavender and home made cards in the Paragon School playground in Bath last week. Thank you Jemima!

Sponsored swim to Holy Island: congratulations to Adam Rattray for completing the Holy Island swim on Sunday (after gale force winds scuppered the swim on Saturday). The swim took 40 minutes, but a bit longer to remove all the grease afterwards! Thank you Adam.

 

Mt. Snowdon sponsored climb: sponsorship keeps rolling in, but we have raised around £16,000 so far - thank you to all climbers and those who sponsored us! See here for the photos. Max successfully climbed Monte Bisbino on Saturday 11 Sept in 2 hours 28 minutes (having been unable to climb Snowdon due to illness).

 

Marathon du Medoc: André Pretorius and Theresa Biberauer successfully completed the Marathon du Medoc in 5h30 on Saturday 11 September in aid of Leukaemia Research. Photos to follow... Thank you André and Theresa!

Barnes cricket match held on 14 August raised £1,120 - many thanks to Hugh Pugsley, John and Peter Reid for organising the teams, and to all those who played, supported and raised funds. A great effort thank you.

 

Umpa (Fr. Theo) whose musical evening in Milbrook raised over £400.

Patrick and Delphine whose coffee in Plympton morning raised around £350.

Sue Reid who sold a selection of Leti's jewellery, lavender bags and bath salts at Penn, Beconsfield on 8 July and raised £415.

Mary Weller whose sale in Kings Langley raised around £250.

Ros and Simon Pugsley's coffee morning in Bovey Tracey on 2 July raised £900 for Leukaemia Research. Thank you to R&S and to all of you who attended and made the morning such a success.

The fair held on 26 June at St. John in Cornwall raised a massive £750 for Leukaemia Research. A big thank you to all of you who attended and especially for the fantastic support of the residents and friends of St. John who gave up a sunny summer's day to man stalls and served lunches and teas.

Bet Collins who ran the Run for Life in Plymouth last weekend in aid of Leukaemia Research and raised at least £120.

Gill and Alice Hawken who ran in the Guildford Run for Life.

Great-Granny Yates (aged 99) who hosted a coffee morning on Wednesday in Plympton St. Maurice and raised £350 in aid of Leukaemia Research.

Charmian Evans who opened her garden in Plympton St. Maurice, Devon. About £300 was raised in aid of Leukaemia Research.

Eileen and Marco who held a dinner with friends in Inverigo, Lombardia where €350 was raised in aid of Leukaemia Research.

Thank you to the Girl Guides of Saltash, Cornwall, who have adopted Leukaemia Research to support this year.

Piers Clayden who ran the Oxford Town and Gown race and raised £680.

Thank you to Harbottle & Lewis for raising £3,002.73 for Leukaemia Research with a series of events including cake sales, dessert sales, quiz nights etc. Thank you everyone at H&L, especially Clare Wooldridge for her support!

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FUNDRAISING PRESS ARTICLES:

La Provincia di Como (in Italian) 04.07.10

Sunday Independent (Cornwall) 04.07.10

The Herald (Devon) 07.07.10

Western Morning news (SW England) 07.07.10

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SUPPORTED CHARITIES:

You have probably been referred to this page from Mummy's blog, so you probably know that I am being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) at the Ospedale S. Gerardo di Monza. Updates on my progress can be seen on the blog. Many friends and family have asked which charity I am supporting to help children like me in the future. The answer is two charities, one in England and one in Italy.

England: we have set up this page to raise money for Leukaemia Research, one of the primary UK charities active in researching the causes, treatment and cure of leukaemia (including ALL). You can find details here of what the charity does and how you can help. In particular, they are researching the long term affects of leukaemia treatment and honing the current protocols (treatments) - this means that each individual patient should receive more tailored and exacting treatment in the future. See here for an example of the types of research your donation will pay for - all donations (whether £1 or £1,000) will make a difference.

* £25 could pay for a full set of booklets giving patients and their families information about their cancer when they need it most.
* £50 could pay for a pioneering test to measure the number of leukaemic cells in a patient’s blood, helping doctors to give appropriate doses of treatment.
* £200 could buy 200 kits to extract DNA from blood samples to see if there are any genetic faults and help diagnose cancers more effectively.
* £600 could pay for a Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) test, which improves the outcome for children with leukaemia by checking how they respond to treatment.

 

The MRD test was pioneered by Leukaemia Research over a 15 year period at a cost of GB£3 million and is now being rolled out by the NHS in the UK as standard treatment for all children with ALL. Thanks to the shared research and treatment protocols between countries, even though I am being treated in Italy, my treatment is pretty much identical to that I would receive in England - I am therefore directly benefitting from Leukaemia Research's valuable research that resulted in the MRD which I had on Day 33, on Day 78 and again at the beginning of June at the end of the "reinduction" phase of treatment. Leukaemia Research is also funding the work of Professor Mel Greaves who is undertaking research into the "Milan Cluster" where 7 children from the same school in Milan developed leukaemia in October 2009 (see here for an article (in Italian) in Il Giornale on this research). All of these children are being treated in Monza with me. Thanks to Leukaemia Research, even these Italian children and their parents may receive an answer to the big question "why?", even if their daily treatment is carried out exclusively in Italy.

Donating to Leukaemia Research through this JustGiving website is simple, fast and secure - once you donate, they will send your money directly to Leukaemia Research and make sure that Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more for Leukaemia Research, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Italy: we have recently established a new Italian charity (ONLUS) called Comitato Fiori di Lavanda per la Ricerca sulla Leucemia del Bambino ONLUS. We are working closely with Professor Biondi (head of Paediatrics at Monza) and Professor Jankovic (head of the Day Hospital at Monza) in fostering closer leukaemia research ties with the UK and Italy. On their request, we are trying to raise €155,000 for 2011 in order to fund 4 researchers from Monza (where I continue to be treated) to join the leukaemia research teams for a year in England. You can find out more at www.comitatolavanda.com

Thank you for your very kind support.

Lots of love
Leti x