During Christmas 2012 My brave, beautiful, inspirational Mum Denise  lost her 6 year battle with Myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer. Over the 6 years, my mum suffered a lot of pain and illness due to this cancer and had to undergo intense treatment and chemotherapy. However, my mum never once complained. Mum was always so positive and thankful for each day she had. She was very trustworthy and had lots of faith and gratitude for all her consultants that helped her in hospital and she also had a lot of time for Myeloma Uk who are the only charity dealing exclusively with Myeloma. 

When mum was first diagnosed with Myeloma, none of us had heard of it and it was very daunting hearing the word Cancer, automatically you feel like your world is falling apart and you have no idea what's going to happen. However the hospital sent us in the direction of myeloma Uk and their website and this helped my mum in particularly but also us as a family. We were able to understand a lot more of what myeloma was but also for my mum there was a forum where she could talk to other myeloma patients going through exactly the same thing she was, therefore you felt like there were people you could talk too who understood exactly what you were feeling and going through. The same for families and carers.

My mum was only 48 when she was diagnosed and unfortunately she had had the illness for over a year before doctors actually diagonised it properly. This was due to the cancer being more common in older people, therefore they didn't even consider checking for it. However, unfortunately myeloma seems to be on the increase in people under the age of 55 and we are seeing approximately 4000 new cases every year in the UK. As I said, mum received a late diagnosis due to her age and sadly upto 20% of patients die in the first 60 days because its too late to start treatment. Late diagnosis also causes more complications and can affect the quality of life. THis is why I am very strong and determined to try raise as much awareness about this terrible disease as possible. In a recent survey 97% of people did not know what it was. This needs to change.

MYeloma UK work with patients, families, doctors, GPs, nurses, researchers and other charities to help work and fight against this disease. This cancer is not curable at the moment but with intense treatment can be controlled to give patients the best life they can get for the longest amount of time. However, with lots of research done by medical professionals, researchers from charities like Myeloma UK, hopefully with funds they can continue to hopefully one day find a cure.

My mum was my best friend, my idol and my hero. She didn't deserve the pain and suffering she went through due to this Cancer. And she was definitely too young to be taken away from me and my family. As I said my mum was so positive and even when she was suffering she was always thinking of others. Mum responded well to most treatments and I know she will be happy knowing that all the research and notes that doctors have on her will go to help someone else in the future.

Myself and my family are the ones suffering now and as painful as it is, deep within our hearts, we know its nothing like the pain Myeloma patients physically feel and have to suffer with. This is why myself and my family want to continue to help and support patients and families suffering with myeloma. We want to continue to raise as much money as possible to help fund research, improve treatments etc. 

This is why I have set myself a challenge of doing a Skydive in memory of my mum and to raise money for Myeloma UK. My dad is also doing the skydive and we are hoping to raise lots of awareness and spread the word, especially to try and stop late diagnosis.

I would be very grateful if you could sponsor me and show your support. Your help and support has helped me get through the last few months and kept me going so if you could help me by doing this for my mum and raising as much money as possible then I know I will be making my mum very proud and she will be happy knowing we are helping others.

Any amount I am extremely grateful for. Thankyou for reading my story and helping me raise awareness for Myeloma UK. Please sponsor me and then share my page for others to see so we can spread the word.

Thanks again and lots of love

Steph

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.