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Release Date: 5th October 2004
A Cardiff woman who lost her husband to leukaemia is looking to raise vital money for research into the disease.
Carole Lee from St Fagans is leading a team of 28 runners in the BUPA Great South Run on 10th October in Portsmouth, determined to help the charity Leukaemia Research find a way to overcome a post-transplant complication called Graft-versus Host Disease (GvHD).
Her husband, 28-year-old Ben, died in May last year after having a bone marrow transplant from his sister Rebecca.
"Ben was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in September 2002 and he was given chemotherapy, but his doctors said the only potential cure would be a successful bone marrow transplant," says 27-year-old Carole.
The couple had been together for two years and planned to marry in September 2003, but it was brought forward to November 2002.
"We both wanted to get married before Ben's transplant because we knew it would be tough after that. We were all so positive that he would make it through. Even the doctors were positive as Ben was young, fit and healthy," says Carole, a Secretary at the law firm Morgan Cole.
Ben's sister Rebecca was a perfect match and so he had the transplant in January 2003 and all seemed to have gone well, until a few weeks later when he became ill with GvHD. This occurs when the donor's immune cells recognise the patient's cells as foreign and attack them. Occurring in around 50% of bone marrow transplant patients, it can affect the liver, gut, eyes and skin.
"The doctors told me that Ben's was one of the worst cases of GvHD they had seen, which surprised them because his sister had been such a close match. They tried numerous different treatments, but sadly they didn't work and Ben lost his brave battle," adds Carole.
The team of 28 friends and family, which includes Ben's mum and his sister, will join Carole on the ten-mile road race through the streets of Portsmouth and hope to raise hundreds of pounds to go into a memorial fund setup in Ben's name to fund pioneering research.
"We all miss Ben so much and so we want to do all we can to help Leukaemia Research and doctors find a way to overcome GvHD, so no one else has to go through the pain and trauma it can cause," says Carole.
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