Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Myself and my dear friend, Jane Pollard are going to be together on this one ...

As some of you know, our son, Ben was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and Lyme Disease in June 2018. After one round of chemotherapy, he was deemed high risk and went on to have a stem cell transplant in Bristol Children's Hospital in October last year. This was made achievable, thanks to the kindness of a stranger, someone who, when asked, stepped up to try and save our son's life. It's a relatively simple procedure, akin to giving blood.

We are immensely grateful as a family for the precious time that Ben's unrelated donor afforded us. He was home for Christmas last year, which was something we were so over the moon about and we enjoyed another few months at home as a family, all together. It was just wonderful to be under the same roof again.

Sadly, as you know, Ben relapsed with AML earlier in the summer of this year and died in my arms, the day after we got him home from hospital, just six days after his 12th birthday.

The loss we feel is beyond anything a family could write. Ben was funny, intelligent, quick-witted, generous of heart and wanted to be a film writer and director when he grew up. Our hearts are broken and life has changed for myself, his Dad and two sisters, forever.

My beautiful friend, Jane Pollard. who ran the marathon earlier in the year for DKMS, is running, encouraging, supporting me on the way round (carrying me and holding me up, no doubt as my training has been minimal) - I may not be able to run, but I will walk, stagger, jog, every step of those ten miles, thinking about my son and my two girls. Jane and I will join in unity with others who have gone through similar extraordinary journeys, because the importance of stem cell donation, if you are able to do it, is something that is crucial to helping give more time to other families in this situation ... and may even save a life.

Thank you for supporting Jane and myself if you can. Anything you can offer would be amazing and will help DKMS to bring more people to the stem cell register and help try to save more lives. 

You can keep up with Ben's story here ... www.bensepicjourney.org

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