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MyelomaUK - Nominated Charity of the Year - 2023/24
Over 6,000 people are diagnosed with Myeloma (or Multiple Myeloma as it’s also known) every year in the UK - but I bet like me, you’d never heard of it?
Here in Gloucestershire we get our fair share of people diagnosed with MM and they are treated in both the Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals, supported by Gloucestershire’s Myeloma Support Group at the Maggie’s Centre in Cheltenham and nationally by the registered charity MyelomaUK .
Our very own Nadine Thomas, who coached Minis and Juniors for over 23 years here at DRFC was diagnosed in early 2023. Neither Nadine, her husband Rob or her two sons Stephen and Simon (who still plays for Dursley 1st XV) had heard of it before either prior to Nadine’s diagnosis.
Awareness of the cancer, its symptoms and diagnosis is therefore very important (as it's easy for GPs to not immediately recognise MM as the cause, as many of the symptoms can be attributed to other potential root causes).
How will DRFC's support help?
Myeloma UK is a charity solely funded by its supporters. It receives no funding at all from the NHS or government….. that’s why every penny counts! (see below)
So Dursley RFC is Proud to announce that for the 2023/4 season, MyelomaUK has been chosen as its first nominated “Charity of the Year” and will be the focus of one or more fundraising events with their own connected Just Giving event pages - This "Team" Page will allow us to have visibility across all events AND the combined running total for the year!
More about Myeloma UK
Myeloma makes up just 1% of all cancers and 15% of blood cancers and is, as yet, an incurable cancer that occurs in the bone marrow.
That said, due to the fantastic work of all the health and research professionals ably supported by Myeloma UK there have been fantastic strides made in the last 25 years. For example, most recently:
* 2018 Daratumumab (Darzalex also know as Dex) was the first immunotherapy drug approved for Myeloma thanks to the Patients & Doctors campaign supported by MyelomaUK
*2021 A huge victory for patient power the first maintenance treatment lenalidomide (Revlimid) was approved. This is the FIRST life-extending maintenance treatment for Myeloma
* Due to all these efforts we've seen great progress in recent years with average life expectancy quadrupling, with three out of ten patients living for ten years or more after diagnosis and some much longer still.
* Find out more about MyelomaUK's work over the past 25 years at myeloma.org.uk/25 years or view the impactful MyelomaUK Timeline .
Team members (4)
Join team- £4,881 of £2,500
- £3,045 of £3,000
- £1,889 of £1,500
- £430 of £300