leukaemia

HCL Relapse 12 Months On

This day last year I started chemotherapy for my relapse of Hairy Cell Leukaemia. It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 months but thankfully, here we are! At the time, my calendar was filled with chemotherapy appointments and blood tests, every two weeks running until end of May, but in our minds, we were taking it one day at a time. Looking forward at the time, all we had to go on was what happened during my initial treatment, neutropenia,…

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Hairy Cell Treatment Latest Update

Time for an update! It’s been a while 🙂 In my previous post was written just before cycle 4. I went on to have 3 more cycles before my consultant suggested we take a break and do a biopsy to see where we are. Only so much can be analysed from blood results so biopsy it was. I had the results from this a couple of weeks ago, where my consultant informed me I am responding very well to treatment,…

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Cancer Treatment Update

Hairy Cell Leukaemia – Treatment Update

It has been over a month now since my last update, so I thought it was about time to gather my thoughts! Looking back to my first post on this relapse, I was due to start my treatment on November 17th and would be approaching cycle 6 this week, however, this isn’t exactly how things have panned out. The original start date date slipped 2 weeks to December 1st as pharmacy at Lister did not have the chemo drug I…

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HCL Relapse – Treatment Update

I start my treatment for my HCL relapse this Thursday (17th Nov). It seems quite a long time since the initial warning signs were found in my annual check-up in July, but as bizarre as it sounds, it’s good to finally have a start date, because, a start date, means an end date! I am facing 6 months of fortnightly chemotherapy (at the Lister in Stevenage) – where I will be given Pentostation by IV drip. This is a very…

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Ride London - Essex 2022

Ride London – Essex 2022

I am delighted to announce that I will be riding in Ride London – Essex 2022 raising funds for Blood Cancer UK again. This is my 4th time participating in the event and my second time raising funds for Blood Cancer UK having been diagnosed the summer following my first ride. I originally had a place on the pandemic Ride London – Surrey event which would have been on the “traditional course”. This years event sees the ride head out…

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1000 Miles for Blood Cancer UK

One Thousand Miles for Blood Cancer UK – End of Week 3

End of Week 3, the stats!! 24 Rides (21 on Zwift, 3 IRL) 701.11 Miles in total (Lands end to Pitlochry – or near enough!) – er.. 70% distance 41:33:09 Total riding time. 25,301 Calories burned 47,591 Feet of climbing (90.65% of the total I could find for one of the popular routes) 49 miles behind ideal schedule (see burn down!) The red line is tracking my cumulative daily progress towards zero miles remaining (burndown). I’m behind schedule, as indicated…

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1000 miles for Blood Cancer UK

One Thousand Miles for Blood Cancer – End of Week 2

2 weeks done, the stats.. 14 Rides (13 on Zwift, 1 IRL) 360.96 Miles in total (Lands end to Stoke-on-Trent – or near enough!) – er.. 36% distance 21:51:33 Total riding time. 12,821 Calories burned 26,521 Feet of climbing (50.52% of the total I could find for one of the popular routes) 108 miles behind ideal schedule (see burn down!) The red line is tracking my cumulative daily progress towards zero miles remaining (burndown). I’m behind schedule, as indicated by…

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Ride London 2018 Done

So, after countless sunny days, many training rides in the heat… it only tipped it down on the day, more or less all day.  It almost but didn’t break my spirit on the day… all I had to do was think back 12 months ago and remind myself that I followed the event from hospital bed, probably receiving blood transfusions that day also.  Crossing the finish line was special.. but not as special as the roar from the support team…

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In Remission from Hairy Cell Leukaemia

On Monday 8th January 2018, 176 days after diagnosis, I was declared in remission from Hairy Cell Leukaemia by my consultant. It is quite difficult do describe my emotions on hearing and absorbing those words. Relieved, grateful, thankful .. a time for celebration, well, not quite, it didn’t feel that way. Being mindful as we’ve learned during this process that 1400 (approx) people on daily basis are diagnosed with one of the 130 varieties of blood cancer, celebration of remission…

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Hairy Cell Leukaemia my Treatment experience

In a previous post, I stated that my treatment would be 5 days of chemotherapy, specifically daily injections of the Cladribine.  Three out of five days, this was the case… but we took a detour in between treatments three and four.  Many of my family and close friends will be already aware of my journey to an extent, as I did update with some details on Facebook, and of course I had my “support groups” on WhatsApp for instant communication…

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