Sorry for dumping this on you in here but desperate times call for desperate measures....

On 14th December I spent 9 hours at the A&E department of a Brussels hospital with my wife who looked like she was on death's door. I have never seen anyone quite so pale and looking so ill. It was all I could do to get her into the car and to the hospital.
On the thursday night prior , she went to her own GP complaining of being fatigued and run down. He diagnosed possible pneumonia and a told her she needed and X-ray and some antibiotics. The x-ray on Friday revealed no signs of pneumonia but the GP said take the antibiotics anyway.
By saturday she had faded and was in bed pretty much all day and she even turned down an invite to a Christmas party..... then I knew it was serious !

The A&E team did all the usual checks and based upon the results of blood tests they said all was not well in her bloods department. Her haemoglobin level which should be at around 13 to 14 was at 6 and somethng else was also way too low. It's funny when you get told these things you don't hear the details at the time.

They put her on an immediate blood transfusion and admitted her overnight for tests In the meantime she's had more blood tranfusions and we were told on the 16th December that she has Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and she's not left hospital since.

We have battled our way through Christmas and New Year and my wife is fighting hard but we need your help.

We learned on Monday last week that her brother is not a suitable bone marrow donor but on Monday we didn't know just how significant this news would turn out to be. Not all leukaemias require a marrow transplant but it's a nice thing to have a ready matched donor on hand in case yours does.

On Thursday the bomb dropped and the Professor treating my wife told us that she is in a group of sub-segment leukaemias which means she will need a bone marrow transfer to beat this.
No matter how much I might hope and pray for a quick match , it isn't going to happen easily but we do know that the more people who are registered as willing bone marrow donors , the more chance I have of keeping my wife alive.

If you aren't already a registered donor in the UK please do us a favour and get in touch with the Anthony Nolan Trust http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/ There is an upper age limit of 40 in the UK - so if you can't donate yourself please spread the word and talk to anyone and everyone you can think of.... we really need some help.

If like us you live outside the UK , the Belgian organisation can be found here: http://www.mdpb.be/ The upper age limit in Belgium is 50, and there are similar organisations all over the world. These organisations share a global registry bone marrow donor database so please get registered as soon as possible. As the search is now on for a match for my wife it will widen and span the globe to try and find the match somewhere if not here in Belgium where we happen to live, then in another country.

It's a quick blood test and some paperwork to read and sign and you will be in the registry. By doing so you might be the 1:50,000 chance to save my wife's life during the next few months.
Thanks
Mr & Mrs Gecko
(AKA Marc & Helen)
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Last edited by Gecko on 29th May 2009 8:14 am. Edited 2 times in total

Blimey that's not good.

All the best for a speedy recovery to your wife.

I am too old for the Nolan test but I wish you every success...

That is not good, I'm like Snappa....to old to be of any use.

I know what its like to be told something like this. My brother has MND to which there is no cure, but I wish you all the luck in the world in finding a suitable donor.
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Thanks guys :
I have done some more research and the blood donors organiation will accept Donors up to 49 whilst Anthony Nolan Trust is indeed only 40 : I don't understand the reasoning but I dare say they have some explanation.

http://www.blood.co.uk/pages/marrow_info_questions.html
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I wish you and your wife the best of luck in your search

I will have a look at the donation/register website to see what is required.

To help keep this thread up top I have made it a sticky thread to remain there

Pass on my thoughts and wishes to Helen from myself and all at Freel2.com

Nick
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Best of luck to Mrs Gecko, I know from close experience the wonders of donations and already subscribe to donation services.
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If I could help I would - Unfortunatly I am too old
I wish you and your wife all the luck in getting the bone marrow transfer and that she has a speedy recovery
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I've red this post only now. Good luck to both of you Gecko !
How is the situation now ?

I have her home for a while (+/- 2 weeks) ahead of the next round of Chemo. It's been very tough but she made it through round 1...The search for a donor is ongoing and to my amazement - British people cannot enrol to be donors in Belgium because the Belgium authorities say there is a risk of CJD (mad cow disease) from British donors.... yet the patient in this case is British and when they look for donors , they will extend the search via the international bone marrow registry to include British donors.... but the F@*king stupid cretins that are the burocrats that run the system in Belgium won't let us or our British friends get tested as possible donors.

Anyone know where I can get hold of a large quantity of semtex and some high powered automatic weapons ? I am in the mood to do some damage to this country !!!
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I'm sorry to hear all this Gecko and I understand you are desperate for help.

On the "Belgian Bone Marrow Donor" site I found this:

To increase the patients’ chance of finding a suitable donor, the Belgian Registry collaborates very closely with all of the registries worldwide. Presently, there are approximately 50,000 volunteer donors listed in the Belgian Registry. Worldwide, over 10 million volunteer donors are registered with the international donor registry

I'm afraid I'm just a layman in that field but doesn't that give more opportunities ?

Hi Paul
There is actually 12.75 million donors now regsitered www.bmdw.org and the UK has about 10 times the number of Belgium. That is exactly the problem - the Belgians are happy to use UK donors when they need them but they won't let UK donors donate via the Belgium collection points - it's just plain stupid.
Thanks for yoru support.
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I figure I owe an update for anyone interested. Mrs Gecko has been home for a few weeks whilst the search for a donor continued. A couple of weeks ago her professor at the hospital told us he had found the match he was looking for and the date for the transplant is now set for the 29th April. She has to go back into the hospital on the 22nd for more of that awful chemo therapy and radiation too this time but with the donor we at least have a fighting chance of beating this .
Thanks to everyone who sent message of support and got in to get themselves signed up as a donor someone out there is trying very hard to save my wife's life and that is a pretty amazing thing for a complete stranger to do...... oh yes , almost forgot to mention the donor is from the UK
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best of luck to her...and you
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I'll keep my fingers crossed for both of you Gecko ! Good luck and keep us informed !

I will also keep my fingers crossed for you both. Hope everything goes the way it should with the transplant
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