On Saturday 18th September I walked 17 miles on the Great Hospital Hike in support of King's College Hospital Charity.

In June 2020 Sian was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, an incurable blood cancer. She was swiftly treated with conventional chemotherapy at the wonderful Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton. Sadly the treatment didn’t keep the cancer at bay for long and it returned in an even more aggressive form almost immediately. Sian then started another new immunotherapy course of treatment but by January that was also failing to kept the cancer at bay.

Fortuitously, a new treatment, CAR-T, was approved for use in the UK on Mantle Cell  patients on 21st January. The treatment was only available in the UK at Kings College Hospital where CAR-T had been used to very successfully treat two other forms of cancer over the previous 2 years.  Sian was  the fourth person in the UK to have the treatment for Mantle Cell.

As with all medical treatments  there were potential side effects but the CAR-T was potentially a cure for Sian’s cancer so she decided to go ahead with it. Unfortunately, the treatment caused shockingly severe, life threatening side effects which resulted in Sian being in a coma for over two weeks.

Sian fought her toughest fight and after many weeks of intensive care and a total of 110 days in Kings College Hospital she was finally discharged, CANCER FREE, on 31st July!  It was only through the incredible care that Sian  received from both the CAR-T doctors and the Intensive Care doctors and nurses that she managed to survive such severe side effects. 

The lengthy stay in hospital and the physical trauma has left her incredibly weak but she’s now rehabilitating at home with lots of TLC  and regular physiotherapy.

It has been a traumatic and emotional time for us all. Our family and friends have been a wonderful support. The quality of care, the expertise and the support we’ve had from King’s has been incredible. 

As a family we wanted to do something positive for the hospital and so we took on The Great Hospital Hike to recognise their efforts and hopefully raise some money for them.

#teamwinter on the day was 17 strong and all of us managed to complete the course.

It’s was a 17 mile hike starting at King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill and ending at the sister hospital Princess Royal Alexandra near Bromley, on Saturday 18th September.

Donations are not expected but any support will be very gratefully received. Thank you so much xxx