On the 22nd April 2018, I will be running the London Marathon. Lost my mind? Probably. Here's why...
Last September however, a good friend of mine was losing his mind for very different reasons. His 23 year old Daughter Hannah was diagnosed with a severe case of leukaemia and admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Unfortunately within 48 hours of treatment her lungs had become fully saturated as a result of the treatment required for her specific type of leukaemia and she was unable to breathe by herself. Hannah was put on a ventilator and transferred to intensive care, two hours into her 23rd birthday. Fortunately her lungs began to function on their own several days later, however it was clear that everything was not right and it transpired that Hannah had suffered a stroke whilst on the ventilator and had lost most of the use of her right side and some of her eyesight. Already faced with the terrible news about her leukaemia this was a desperate blow to them, however over the next few days Hannah started to display some small steps of recovery from her stroke and was transferred to the Teenage and Young Adult Cancer ward. As Hannah’s blood results were so extreme the constant priority for her medical team was to try and carefully maintain her bleeding/clotting balance, however, within a fortnight, Hannah unfortunately suffered another significant trauma with a major loss of blood to her colon and spleen and she was rushed back into intensive care and yet again placed on a ventilator. The next fortnight was spent living on a knife edge as the wonderful intensive care team and haematologists managed to balance all her issues to enable her to again be removed from her ventilator. A few weeks later following a recovery route back via intermediate care, Hannah was back in the TYA ward where to everyone’s surprise, despite all her issues she was found to be in remission from her leukaemia. In December, following a lengthy delay post-induction phase to help her colon to partly recover, Hannah commenced her consolidation treatment phase and her daily regime since then has consisted of receiving further treatment and learning to walk again following her stroke. She was discharged from Addenbrooke’s just before Christmas although she has been readmitted several times since then with a variety of complications and new issues, including hypercalcemia and pancreatitis. As things stand, Hannah is still receiving treatment but has recently received the terrific news that she is still currently in remission. Steve and his wife Judy, our wider family and friends are full of admiration for the way she has battled through times when they were expecting the worst. Hannah’s determination and resilience coupled with the dedication and knowledge of her consultants and doctors have got her where she is today, although unsurprisingly given her other medical issues she struggles with her treatment which causes frequent sickness, nausea, extreme tiredness and sometimes chronic bouts of abdominal pain, her colon eventually discovered to have been almost fully ulcerated and her spleen badly damaged. Obviously there is a long way to go, but given what Hannah has endured, everybody remains hopeful that she can continue to remain in remission and ultimately be cured of her leukaemia and make as full a recovery as possible from her stroke and abdominal issues. Hannah has been kept safe by so many people across many departments within Addenbrooke’s Hospital (Haematology; Intensive Care; Intermediate Care; Neurology; Stroke Recovery; Opthalmology; Speech and Language; Gastro-Enterology; Neuro-Physiotherapy; Dietary and ENT) and we owe her life and her recovery to everybody’s expertise and care. I would like to raise money specifically for equipment that has been relevant to Hannah’s journey and experience, particularly for those future patients who experience life threatening medical issues above and beyond their leukaemia diagnosis. My aim is to raise a total of £2,500 for equipment for Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge
