Cindy - CML Zero Club Member #590

I am giving up my birthday prezzies to help families facing blood cancer!

Today, 53 Australians will be told that they have blood cancer and tomorrow – another 53 families will be devastated by the same news.

23 years ago (on 28 April 2000), I was admitted to the Alfred Hospital after a blood test revealed that I have Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML). I was given an initial prognosis of 2-4 years and the only option for a cure was a bone marrow transplant.

I didn't find a match for a bone marrow donor, but I was given access to Phase III of a new clinical trial. It was due to chance that in a 50/50 randomised trial, I was placed in the trial group for STI-571. 

This trial drug became a breakthrough treatment for CML and is now available worldwide as IMATINIB (Gleevec/Glivec), a targeted therapy for leukaemia.
I still take Glivec tablets every day.

I also have a milestone birthday in April. 
(Sometimes, I wasn't sure that I would reach this milestone.)
In a few years, I will have lived with blood cancer for half my life.

The Leukaemia Foundation quietly supported me during a time when I wasn't working a few years ago. This is an opportunity to give back to an organisation that genuinely supports patients and funds lifesaving medical research.

If you have the means to give any amount, please make a tax-deductible contribution.

Heartfelt thanks for your support of people living with CML, including me.

Notes:

1. In the early days of the clinical trials, Zavie Miller, a CML patient in Canada, created and maintained a list of patients with 0-1% Philadelphia chromosome in the bone marrow. Philadelphia chromosome is the marker for CML. Zavie assigned a Zero Club number (via email) for patients around the world. When I achieved CCR (complete cytogenetic response) and 0% in 2003, I was assigned Club #590.
Posted in memory of Zavie Miller (d. 2012).

2. My haematologist in Melbourne, together with Novartis, made arrangements for me to join the US clinical trial based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St Louis, Missouri. During the two years I spent in the USA, I participated in two Relay For Life events. I was a Trial participant and still received bone marrow biopsies (along with blood tests) during this time.
Image: Relay For Life event, April 2002