Jared, Connor and their mum, Chris

Chris was overjoyed when her identical twin boys were born. They were healthy little babies. As a new mother, she had so many hopes and dreams for her beautiful boys. Never did Chris imagine how dramatically all their lives would change.
One day Connor developed a temperature and became listless. Chris initially thought Connor was having a reaction to a possible insect bite, but as the hours passed and his conditon worsened, Connor was rushed to the hospital. After 12 hours of blood tests and 20 days of waiting, the final diagnosis was Juvenile Myelomoncytic Leukaemia, a very rare condition. Although Jared appeared healthy, he was tested and found to be positive for the disease. Both boys required stem cell transplants to save their lives.

The family moved into the Fight Cancer Foundation’s BMDI Rotary House, within walking distance to the Royal Children’s Hospital. The boys underwent a gruelling course of chemotherapy, one at a time, and then were prepared for their stem cell transplants using cord blood released through AusCord. The road to recovery was long and marked with setbacks but today, four years later, the boys are both healthy and happy and in remission.

The Fight Cancer Foundation’s BMDI Cord Blood Bank located at the Royal Children’s Hospital is part of the AusCord network. It has just released its 414th cord blood unit for transplantation and overall AusCord has released the 1000th cord blood unit for transplantation.


Shea and Back on Track

Shea was 13 when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia – the family’s world was turned upside down.”The Fight Cancer Foundation Back On Track Program has helped me in so many ways. I know when I return to school, which is now only six weeks away, I am confident to be able to complete my last term of Year 7.

The program Back On Track has set up for me is great! My teacher is really nice and has helped me so much. Having someone explain the work and help me with difficult topics makes it so much easier.I’m very thankful to be involved in the Back On Track program as I want to do well at school – now more than ever. Having leukaemia has made me appreciate many things others take for granted. I couldn’t believe I actually missed going to school, but I did!

The Back On Track Program works around my hospital visits, and days when I have been really sick and just too tired to work. I appreciated that. They encourage me on the good days, and I have been able to keep up with all of my work. I miss my school friends too, but Back On Track loaned me a great laptop to do my school work on and I can email my friends or talk on MSN.

I can’t express enough just how much the support of the Fight Cancer Foundation helped me and my family. Thank you!”

Nancy’s Story

At the age of 26, Nancy was diagn
osed with acute myeloid leukaemia. Living in England at the time of her diagnosis, she returned home to Australia and broke the news to her family. It soon became apparent a bone marrow transplant was required to save her life. When a donor match wasn’t found in her family, the search moved to the Australian Bone Marrow Registry. When a match failed to be found on the Australian registry, the search was broadened to the international registries. After an anxious wait of several months, Nancy and her family were overjoyed when they received the news that a match had been found on the German registry. A nurse from the Royal Melbourne Hospital was sent to receive the bone marrow. Within hours after it arriving in Melbourne, Nancy was receiving the precious life-saving bone marrow from the German donor.

Nancy recovered. Four years after her transplant, Nancy was permitted to make contact with her donor in Germany. Initially they exchanged letters, then talked on the phone and kept in touch by email. Nancy learned that Werner, who lives in a small village outside Heidelberg, had registered to be a donor during an appeal in 2000 spearheaded by the mother of a 30 year old woman
who required a bone marrow transplant to save her life. Sadly a match was not found for her. But Werner proved to be the perfect match for Nancy.

In April this year, Nancy and Werner decided to meet. Nancy was invited to spend the Easter holiday with Werner and his family. It was an emotionally charged moment when Nancy and Werner met. Nancy was overwhelmed with gratitude to the man who had given her a second chance at life. Werner was proud and thankful that he was able to help. She was welcomed into their home as a long lost relation. On the last day of her visit, while taking a walk through Werner’s small village, they found themselves at the village cemetery. As they stood by the entrance gate, a woman walked out of the gate and proceeded down the path towards the village. Werner pointed to the woman and told Nancy that she was the mother who had spearheaded the donor drive in 2000. Did she want to meet her? Nancy said yes and Werner ran after the woman and brought her over to meet Nancy. The woman embraced Nancy. She had lost her daughter but here in her arms was another woman’s daughter who had been given that precious gift of a second chance of life. Up until that moment, the woman hadn’t realised the effect her efforts to save her own daughter’s life had had. When the woman learned that Nancy was from Australia she was overwhelmed. She told Nancy and Werner that as her daughter lay dying, her last words to her mother were that she was swimming in the Great Barrier Reef and she felt so well and happy.

Nancy is very grateful to have been touched by the lives of these two people. “At the end of it all, having had cancer and a bone marrow transplant has enriched my life in ways I never thought imaginable”

Twenty years ago ‘Giving Hope and Saving Lives’ became the mission statement for the founders of the Fight Cancer Foundation. This small group of concerned parents with children living with cancer, made the impossible happen – the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry became a reality. Today with more than 170,000 potential donors, the ABMDR is the 6th largest in the world, part of a worldwide network of bone marrow donor registries and has given more than 2000 people a second chance of life.

By making a donation to the Fight Cancer Foundation you are supporting our work in the fight against cancer. Thank you.

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