Myeloma UK: sunrise to sunset Cambodia
2017 was a year like no other for the McGeevers. In June that year we lost my mother to cancer and Charlie, never one to go to the doctor's, had been had told many times over that past year that he kept cracking ribs that never seemed to heal properly. By September I drove him to the hospital and we refused to leave until we got a diagnosis for what was clearly not just broken ribs.
On the 22nd September our world simply fell apart. We were told Charlie had Multiple Myeloma..... What the hell is Myeloma? Neither of us had even heard of it before. It is a blood cancer in the bones and we were told there was no cure. We were told life expectancy was short, perhaps 18 months to five years. We were told to tell our three young children the truth and to start having difficult conversations. We were referred as a family to the hospice support team and given children's books about grief.
And that was that. We were now a family in crisis.
It felt like the book of life had closed in on us and the world had gone dark. Everywhere I looked on the internet there wasn't any glimmer of good news. You get myeloma, you fight it for a while, you die.
Then Charlie was moved to the haematology department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Glasgow and the amazing staff on ward five picked us up, made us laugh and pointed us in the direction of the Myeloma UK website. There isn't a cure........ Yet. There isn't an easy way to live with myeloma ....... Yet. There are people living longer and longer with myeloma and there are new treatments being developed each year.
Charlie very quickly, without saying a word, decided he was going to live with myeloma. The courage and tenacity he has shown throughout the last two years have simply blown me away. He never dips, he carries me through my dark days. As soon as he recovered from his stem cell transplant the first thing he wanted to do was go to a party and dance. And he hasn't stopped.
The last two years have been hard for him, nine months of chemo, one stem cell transplant and six weeks in isolation and then in October 2018 we were told he was in remission. There was no big party, Myeloma doesn't allow you to ring that "I'm cured bell". But the gift of remission would not have been possible without the NHS and our sanity would not be intact without the Myeloma UK charity (and the amazing support from our family and friends).
We don't know when Charlie's Myeloma will be back. We don't know how long Charlie has but we do know that we have been given the gift of extra time and we will create memories as a family and we will raise awareness of this bone marrow cancer known as Myeloma- the most misdiagnosed cancer in the under 50's.
We are self funding our trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia so every penny that you sponsor us will go direct to Myeloma UK.
Our challenge: climb Angkor Wat for sunrise. Swim in the waterfall temple at lunch and cycle to the Bayon temple for sunset. No meanfeat when Florence is only three and Charlie has neuropathy nerve damage from the chemo.
More information about Myeloma UK: Myeloma UK is the only organisation in the UK dealing exclusively with myeloma. We are helping myeloma patients live longer and with a better quality of life
On the 22nd September our world simply fell apart. We were told Charlie had Multiple Myeloma..... What the hell is Myeloma? Neither of us had even heard of it before. It is a blood cancer in the bones and we were told there was no cure. We were told life expectancy was short, perhaps 18 months to five years. We were told to tell our three young children the truth and to start having difficult conversations. We were referred as a family to the hospice support team and given children's books about grief.
And that was that. We were now a family in crisis.
It felt like the book of life had closed in on us and the world had gone dark. Everywhere I looked on the internet there wasn't any glimmer of good news. You get myeloma, you fight it for a while, you die.
Then Charlie was moved to the haematology department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Glasgow and the amazing staff on ward five picked us up, made us laugh and pointed us in the direction of the Myeloma UK website. There isn't a cure........ Yet. There isn't an easy way to live with myeloma ....... Yet. There are people living longer and longer with myeloma and there are new treatments being developed each year.
Charlie very quickly, without saying a word, decided he was going to live with myeloma. The courage and tenacity he has shown throughout the last two years have simply blown me away. He never dips, he carries me through my dark days. As soon as he recovered from his stem cell transplant the first thing he wanted to do was go to a party and dance. And he hasn't stopped.
The last two years have been hard for him, nine months of chemo, one stem cell transplant and six weeks in isolation and then in October 2018 we were told he was in remission. There was no big party, Myeloma doesn't allow you to ring that "I'm cured bell". But the gift of remission would not have been possible without the NHS and our sanity would not be intact without the Myeloma UK charity (and the amazing support from our family and friends).
We don't know when Charlie's Myeloma will be back. We don't know how long Charlie has but we do know that we have been given the gift of extra time and we will create memories as a family and we will raise awareness of this bone marrow cancer known as Myeloma- the most misdiagnosed cancer in the under 50's.
We are self funding our trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia so every penny that you sponsor us will go direct to Myeloma UK.
Our challenge: climb Angkor Wat for sunrise. Swim in the waterfall temple at lunch and cycle to the Bayon temple for sunset. No meanfeat when Florence is only three and Charlie has neuropathy nerve damage from the chemo.
More information about Myeloma UK: Myeloma UK is the only organisation in the UK dealing exclusively with myeloma. We are helping myeloma patients live longer and with a better quality of life
Organizer
Jules Mcgeever
Organizer
Myeloma UK
Registered nonprofit
Donations eligible for Gift Aid.
