Thomas was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia on January 14th 2002 and had a bone marrow transplant on Friday the 24th of May 2002.
He has had his 3 month and 6 month post transplant checks and is doing very well. He is now able to attend school (full time!), and within the next six weeks (hopefully before Christmas) will have his central line removed due to the fact that his cyclosporin (anti-rejection) drugs will be stopped in the next week or two and his out-patient visits to Southampton and Poole Hospitals will be lengthened to once a month.
His hair is growing back very well (although is slightly darker than before and with a definate wave!), and his weight is steadily increasing (he is now at 21.5 Kgs).
His blood counts are so normal now that we no longer know what they are, which seems terrible after following them so closely for so long! He has had one cytogentic blood test (just after his 3 month check) and this returned a negative result (implying that he had no leukaemic cells present in the sample). We are now awaiting another test to see if this is still the case.
Life is gradually returning to normal for us and Thomas is starting to enjoy life once again.
I have recorded a song that I wrote for Thomas before he was diagnosed with CML. "Father To Son (I'll Be There For You)" is a song that I have loaded onto mp3.com. Please feel free to have a listen at www.mp3.com/Andy_Shutler. Click on the "track info" link for information about the song and the "download" link to save the song to your computer.
Thomas received a wish from the Round Table Children's Wish charity (making wishes come true for children with life threatening illnesses). Thomas wished for an X-Box games console. He is very lucky and the charity also bought him 4 games, an extra handset and a TV! It was been an absolute God-send as it helped pass the time during his stay at hospital. We are very grateful to all concerned for this fabulous gift.
The British Bone Marrow Register (BBMR) has launched a new recruitment campaign. In 2002/2003 the BBMR, run by the National Blood Service (NBS), is aiming to recruit an additional 40,000 bone marrow donors to the register, a 100% increase on 2001. We intend on following the sucess of this as we helped in their promotion. If you are between 18 and 45 you could save a life by signing up to give blood and go on the bone marrow register.