We found each other again 3 years ago (February 2003) and fell madly in love! At Xmas 2003 I proposed and we were officially engaged on Sarah’s birthday in January 2004. In May we had a party early to celebrate my birthday, our wedding was planned and organised for July, the dresses bought, we were looking forward to a wonderful day. The day after the party Sarah was suddenly, but briefly, very unwell. She also had some odd bruises and small red marks and on the Monday (17th May, my 31st birthday) I persuaded her to go to the Doctor’s.
A wonderful Locum at her GP sent her straight to the hospital and by that evening, after her fear of needles had caused her to faint whilst waiting for routine blood tests; I knew we were trying to rule out Leukaemia. Just two hours on the internet, once I had been forced to leave her in the hospital at 1am, and I had what turned out to be a very accurate diagnosis of AML. This was confirmed by our consultant the next day.

Sarah had 4 rounds of chemo and went into remission after the first and completed her treatment in November 2004. The year that followed was amazing and included the proudest day of my life when we got married in March 2005. Sarah went back to work in April, whilst training as a life-coach, bringing positivity and joy to everyone’s lives. I completed my teacher training, worked for a theatre company and undertook supply teaching whilst developing my skills as a performance poet, entering Slam poetry competitions.

Sadly, three days before Christmas 2005, we were told the cancer was back and that treatment would begin again before the new-year. As usual, we grasped every precious moment of health and freedom by spending a wonderful 5 days over Christmas in Tenerife!

Sarah went into hospital to begin chemo in the first week of January 2006 and it is a very powerful combination of drugs they are using which leaves her with no immune system, making very minor infections life threatening. She has also been told she will need a bone marrow transplant in order to make a full and sustainable recovery.

Sarah and I came into contact with the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT), a campaign to raise awareness about the lack of ethnic minority donors on the bone marrow donor register. Unfortunately registration amongst the black, mixed-race and ethnic minority communities is significantly lower than amongst the white community. At the moment the age range to register new donors is 18 to 43, although you can still donate bone marrow once registered until the age of 60. The reason that you can’t register between 43 and 60 is that it is not considered cost effective as the registration process costs about £75. In the case of ethnic minorities, the chances of finding an appropriate match drop from 1 in 5 if you have only a Northern European heritage, to 1 in 100,000 if you are from ANY of the ethnic minorities.

Living in one of the most culturally and racially diverse and integrated cities in the world means that I know one thing for certain. There is someone out there who is a tissue type match with Sarah. All we have to do is convince them to come forward and join the register and the doctors will do the rest.

Sarah, a teacher who works in a school in Peckham (South East London) of where she herself was a pupil, celebrated her 32nd birthday on the 11th January 06 in an isolation room in a south London hospital. If you don’t already know what present to give her to celebrate this joyous day, please call the ACLT and they will let you know what she would really like. Whatever your heritage you could help somebody like you.

PS. If you are too old or too young, or if there is a medical reason why you can’t give the gift of life, please spread the word to your family and friends or anyone else who could help. Also the ACLT could always do with funds to help support them, supporting people like us. You may donate here .

Thank you from both of us, in advance for all your support.

Remember, there is no justice, just us.

Mark Thompson