Making the miles count! My virtual solo marathon
Diane Kemp
My Story
I've struggled to write this, debating how personal I want 'my story' to be. There are so many emotional layers to this and if you're reading my profile, it's likely you've already made the amazing decision to support me in my fundraising for DKMS. So I think for that, I can wipe away a few tears and share a piece of me.
My Dad has an incurable cancer of the bone marrow called Multiple Myeloma. In 2018 he went through intensive treatment which involved high dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Because the chemo kills healthy stem cells in bone marrow (together with the myeloma cells), Dad needed a way of replacing the stem cells that had been destroyed. They do this by collecting healthy stem cells before chemo and then putting them back into the body afterwards to find their way back to the bone marrow. It gave my Dad his best chance at beating the cancer into remission.
Fast forward to March 2020 and lock-down. I have a funny old relationship with alcohol and after a few boozy months, decided enough was enough and knocked it on the head 25th May. Tried (and failed) to enjoy running over the years but with no hope of getting back to my exercise classes, gave it another bash and haven't looked back since. Ran 5km a day in July and something just clicked!
The Edinburgh Marathon Festival weekend lands on my one year alcohol free anniversary and marks World Blood Cancer Day on 28th May. All the signs screaming at me "you can do this". I can't even describe the feeling it gave me when I told my Dad that I was signing up and seeing the pride in his face.
Why DKMS?
It's rare that someone with Myeloma will use a matched donor's stem cells but for others with a different form of blood cancer their only hope of survival is a stem cell transplant from a stranger. DKMS works hard to add as many potential lifesavers to the blood stem cell registry as possible. The money I raise will add more potentially life-saving matches to this register, as adding each one costs DKMS £40, and give more blood cancer patients a second chance at life. I also want to raise awareness of the charity and importance of joining the register. My Dad's transplant was his best chance to live longer but 4 out of 10 people are out there looking for an unrelated matching donor and are not able to find one. Thank you for your support and giving hope to people living with blood cancer.
Ben Nevis next Dad! Love you xxx
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Target
£2,000
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Raised so far
£3,712
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Number of donors
150
My Story
I've struggled to write this, debating how personal I want 'my story' to be. There are so many emotional layers to this and if you're reading my profile, it's likely you've already made the amazing decision to support me in my fundraising for DKMS. So I think for that, I can wipe away a few tears and share a piece of me.
My Dad has an incurable cancer of the bone marrow called Multiple Myeloma. In 2018 he went through intensive treatment which involved high dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Because the chemo kills healthy stem cells in bone marrow (together with the myeloma cells), Dad needed a way of replacing the stem cells that had been destroyed. They do this by collecting healthy stem cells before chemo and then putting them back into the body afterwards to find their way back to the bone marrow. It gave my Dad his best chance at beating the cancer into remission.
Fast forward to March 2020 and lock-down. I have a funny old relationship with alcohol and after a few boozy months, decided enough was enough and knocked it on the head 25th May. Tried (and failed) to enjoy running over the years but with no hope of getting back to my exercise classes, gave it another bash and haven't looked back since. Ran 5km a day in July and something just clicked!
The Edinburgh Marathon Festival weekend lands on my one year alcohol free anniversary and marks World Blood Cancer Day on 28th May. All the signs screaming at me "you can do this". I can't even describe the feeling it gave me when I told my Dad that I was signing up and seeing the pride in his face.
Why DKMS?
It's rare that someone with Myeloma will use a matched donor's stem cells but for others with a different form of blood cancer their only hope of survival is a stem cell transplant from a stranger. DKMS works hard to add as many potential lifesavers to the blood stem cell registry as possible. The money I raise will add more potentially life-saving matches to this register, as adding each one costs DKMS £40, and give more blood cancer patients a second chance at life. I also want to raise awareness of the charity and importance of joining the register. My Dad's transplant was his best chance to live longer but 4 out of 10 people are out there looking for an unrelated matching donor and are not able to find one. Thank you for your support and giving hope to people living with blood cancer.
Ben Nevis next Dad! Love you xxx
Diane Kemp is fundraising towards
