On Sunday 4th July the Women’s President’s day will take place at Alnwick bowling club, 10:00am. For those that don’t know, this is a fun filled day which consists of a jumble, cake sale and raffle all in aid of raising money for the chosen charity by the Women’s President.
This year, President Vivienne Shepherd has chosen to raise money for the Children’s Cancer North. This charity focuses on making lives better for those children and families impacted by childhood cancer and helping them live longer, healthier lives.
This charity is personally close to one member of our bowling community, Rachel Cartwright (BD) and her family and friends. On September 16th 2020, as most of us were finally coming to terms with covid and what lockdown entailed, Rachel received the devastating news that her son, Nathan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) at the age of 4. That same night resulted in a 2 night stay in the Pediatric ICU where Nathan received 3 blood transfusions and a platelet transfusion to bring his blood levels within normal range. That night the RVI and the Great North Children’s Hospital Cancer Unit saved his life.
Treatment began almost immediately at the RVI which involved a central line (port) being fitted to allow direct access for blood and administer chemotherapy. Nathan stayed in hospital for a total of 3 weeks (with only 1 night home during that time) before being discharged as an out patient where treatment would continue.
2 weeks after treatment began, doctor’s were hoping Nathan’s bone marrow was showing less than 25% of Leukaemia cells, where in fact they were already as low as 10%! 1 month on from diagnosis (17th October) Nathan was officially in remission with no visible Leukaemia cells in the bone marrow or the hypersensitive blood test.
Since diagnosis, Nathan has received more than 100 doses of chemotherapy, been to theater 14 times and received a total of 13 blood product transfusions. His treatment will continue with bi-weekly trips to hospital and daily oral chemotherapy at home until 19th November 2023.
Nathan would not be where he was today without the support of the GNCH and the cancer unit.
We would love to see you come along to Alnwick and raise funds for this truly inspiring charity.
We’re asking as many people as possible to wear orange in support of Leukaemia Awarenss.
