Hi, I'm Claire and I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML)

in October 2015.

 

To summarise how I felt when I was told I had leukaemia, well I was happy and

relieved, I didn’t see the point in being upset or angry about it…what’s the point?

I decided that I can either get on with my life and enjoy every minute of it with my teenage son James, my family and my best buddies or sit on the sofa at home and dwell on it…the latter to me was definitely NOT an option!!!

 

I love life and I always have, I’ve always been a positive person so I wasn’t going to let some stupid chromosome change my life. I know from first hand experience that life is short when my Mum passed away from secondary liver cancer when I was 23.

 

So a bit about me, what do I love and what don’t I love…I absolutely love my son who has been amazing through all of this, my parents who are awesome, I have to use awesome to describe my parents as my Dad hates that word lol…and when I say parents it’s obviously my Dad and Step-Mum, but in my eyes she’s my Mum as she’s the best replacement I could have ever have wished for. I love photography…you never know one day I may chuck in my job and go for it with my own business…I love my Running Club, Tewkesbury AllRunners they are like a family to me and have been a great support to me, I love parkrun which I’m the Event Director for and have the best Core Team ever, we all volunteer our time each Saturday and I have made some great friends through all these clubs, I love the Triathlon Club that a I’m a member of, I’m the slowest in the club but who cares, it’s a fun friendly group who cheer you on no end when you’re racing or training…I could go on with what I love so now to what I don’t love…I don’t love closed minded people or negative ones at that, I don’t love the side effects from my drugs oh and I DON’T love bone marrow biopsy’s, who does lol…

 

So to thank LINC for keeping me alive I am now on a mission to fundraise as much money as I can for LINC. CML is a long term cancer, so I will be visiting LINC for many years to come yet and I want to be able to give back as much as I can for the fantastic service they provide to all of us suffering from blood cancer.

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