Andy Jackson

Andy was preparing for his first year of university in the summer of 2003. He was feeling tired and getting frequent headaches but attributed the fatigue to stress from his mother’s diagnosis of terminal liver cancer.

But when Andy started to experience problems with his vision, a routine eye examination uncovered something more serious. The optician noticed blood clots forming on the back of Andy’s eyes and immediately referred him to the hospital for additional tests. The results revealed Andy’s blood was thickening from the over-production of white blood cells and he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia.

He began a blood filtering treatment and mild chemotherapy without delay but, those treatments alone would not stop the disease. Doctors recommended a stem cell transplant.

I was coping, but the problem was I wasn’t cured" Andy recalls, "and the leukaemia could switch from chronic to acute and deadly at any time.

Stem cell transplants have been successful in replacing bone marrow cells lost during the intensive chemotherapy that leukaemia patients undergo, but it is imperative that the donor’s cells are a good match with the patient. Immediate family members are often a good source.

Unfortunately none of Andy’s family members offered a compatible match. Like so many other leukaemia sufferers on the transplant list, Andy had to wait until a match could be found and he was not looking forward to the wait.

So he contacted CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA. “I need to focus on a goal” Andy remembers. And what a goal! He ran the 2004 Flora London Marathon dressed as Mr Bump from the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters and raised over £15,000 for the charity.

But sadly, Andy’s mother started to decline. “We had been told she had three years or so ahead of her but chemotherapy was failing and there was no further treatment they could offer her.”

Yet there was a glimmer of hope for the Jackson family. They had received news that a bone marrow match had been found for Andy.

It wasn’t great timing with mum so ill, and I knew I might not survive it. But I was too young to give up hope.

In May 2004 Andy began the first stage of the treatment. He describes the process: “First they clean out your kidneys, then they kill off all your existing bone marrow using chemotherapy.” The side effects are not pleasant. “The chemo can’t distinguish one fast growing cell from another” Andy explains “so it also attacks your hair, gums, and muscle tissue.” The week of intensive chemotherapy was followed by two more days of radiotherapy.

With the second phase of the transplant looming, Andy was worried not only about his future but his mother’s condition. “I knew that once it started I wouldn’t be allowed out of the hospital until I was producing new, normal white blood cells. Mum was really going downhill and I was really worried I might not be with her when the end came. On the other hand, I needed to get well.”

The transplant was a success and, much to the amazement of his doctors, Andy started to produce white blood cells within a week. He was home a month after the transplant and was able to spend a few days with his mother before she died.

While the bone marrow transplant was successful, Andy was left exhausted and weak from the procedure. He continued to visit the hospital two or three times a week for anti-rejection drugs and follow-ups. He was also vulnerable to common infections such as chicken pox.

It was tough as I basically had the immune system of a four month old baby.

Almost three years after the transplant Andy is in remission but he will be on antibiotics for the rest of his life. He is in his third year of university, studying history and politics, with aspirations to become a journalist.

Since coming to us 2003, Andy has been an inspiration to us all. His support for our work has not stopped with marathons. Andy was kind enough to head an appeal for the charity in the autumn 2006. We thank him for all of the support he has given us and wish him a very long and bright future.

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