From Jamie:

This February, I had the scariest moment of my life. I came home one day to discover that my brother Tom, who my family and I had thought had been suffering from a simple chest infection, had actually been suffering as a result of a very fast-growing tumour in his chest. This tumour was large enough to visibly protrude from his chest, and we were warned by doctors that Tom, a constant reassuring presence throughout my entire life, may not have very long to live or any hope of effective treatment.

This news couldn’t have come at a worse time for our family – our dad Roy was anticipating a routine operation to remove his own prostate cancer at the time, and the news also interrupted a long-anticipated house sale. Now, Tom’s life and all of ours by extension could easily be torn apart. Tom was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, thus increasing the risk of the tumour spreading – affecting the immune system, which is most common in people in their twenties and fatal if untreated.

Tom was lucky, however. He was given a good prognosis and immediately offered far more treatment than we could have imagined. Since March, Tom has been receiving top-of-the-line treatment from University College London Hospitals. Having lifelong learning difficulties, Tom hasn’t been the easiest patient to treat – he’s required round-the-clock support from mum Fran, and can’t stay still long enough for some treatments, for instance – but has the advantages of charming everyone he meets and scores of brilliant staff, specialists and nurses willing to accommodate him and his needs absolutely. Even after six rounds of chemotherapy reduced but did not eliminate the tumour entirely, even after handling him delicately as possible in his immunocompromised state, even after deep vein thrombosis forced him to use a wheelchair at times, the UCLH staff have continued fighting for Tom.

So, we’re doing something to try and repay the favour. On Sunday 7th September, our family – Tom, myself, big sister Maddy, her boyfriend Clem, and mum and dad Fran and Roy – will be participating in UCLH’s flagship fundraising event, Haematology Cancer Care’s annual Bridgathon – an eight-mile sponsored walk across London’s bridges. From the earliest years of his life when he defied doctors’ expectations that he may never walk, through years of walking holidays around the country, to being confined to a wheelchair and learning to walk for the second time in his life, walking has always been one of Tom’s greatest achievements and pleasures. Supporting us as we embark on the Bridgathon would be the most Tom-like way of celebrating Tom’s hard-won victories and supporting the army of people who made them possible.

From UCLH:

We have a strong community of patients, families and staff committed to supporting haematological cancers through fundraising activities and events. Uniquely, we are run by senior clinical staff working closely with all haematology teams and haematology patients ensuring donations make a significant impact on the services here at UCLH.

We provide wide-ranging support including high-tech medical equipment and research projects, free complementary therapy for patients and specialist education for nurses across six inpatient wards, day-care, ambulatory care and young adult and outpatient services