We are holding a Charity Ball on Saturday 30th May at Wellesley College, Eastbourne. It will be a great event with wonderful food, auctions, raffles and entertainment. Details are as per the attached poster. Look forward to seeing you all there.
Margaux.
My meeting with Kristy Cruise It was a great pleasure to meet Kristy Cruise, without her I would never have known about HSCT and I wouldn't be going to Russia next September. She did a talk for 4 hours, standing up the whole time speaking about her time in Russia and briefly about other treatment centres around the world. I am more convinced than ever that I am doing the right thing and listening to her has given me more insight to what's going to happen to me. She went through the day by day treatment with all the details about what was going to happen to me. Language can be a problem there so it is good to know why they are doing certain things to you. She also explained what was going to happen after I return home from Moscow. Apparently after the chemotherapy you lose all your inoculations from the day you were born. I understand now that for the first three months I have to stay away from people, especially children and animals. Food is going to be interesting and for those who know me know I don't eat dairy or meat. After the treatment I have to stay away from salads, nuts, fish, anything that could have bacteria or parasites - apparently fish have lots of parasites, even after cooking. Basically I need lots of protein from well cooked food. This is all because after the chemotherapy I have no immune system and it is only when the stem cells are re introduced into your blood that your b and T cell start to grow very slowly, these supporting the growth of immunity to infection. It is only after 12 months that I can start having all of my inoculations again. I am going to need to be very strict with myself to make sure I give myself the best chance possible of a problem free recovery.
