Patient stories

“It was splashed all over the paper, and I thought, ‘What’s all this fuss about?’ But it had been the biggest breakthrough in about 25 years, apparently. The best thing since sliced bread.”

“I actually found out about my diagnosis by the GP sending me a photo of a letter to take with me to the hospital, saying ‘possible leukaemia’."

"I think it’s about time that I actually go find out what’s happening. Because now it doesn’t feel like anaemia. It feels like something else.”

"One doctor told me that if I hadn’t gone to get sorted when I did, I may have only had another fortnight, if I was lucky. That was a wake-up call."

“We can’t go to playgrounds where Tommy can play with other kids. We’ve got to keep driving until we see a playground with nobody on it – it’s sad.”

"It’s hard to look back on that day. It’s almost like a story that I tell myself."

“They said, ‘If you go home, Vonda, you’ll be dead in 72 hours.’”

“Then we were at the point we’re at now, which was staring down our final treatment option – the second transplant.”

“I said, Alex – Do you think about dying?’, and he said, “Sometimes I do, when I’m dreaming. But, I want to live.”

“All I want to do is be a dad. But I’m in here for four or five weeks at a time.”

"My family were told I may never wake up. Thank goodness I did."

“Only certain people can cope with that. People who love you.”

“When they said that he had blood cancer, I just broke down. The very first thing that ran through my mind was… my son is going to die.”

“It’s taught our family so many things. We’re all in this together.”