In 2013, Anthony Nolan found a stem cell donor for Sharon Berger. Since then, Sharon's family have taken on an incredible number of lifesaving challenges to raise vital funds - from the London Marathon to a skydive. In today's blog, her niece Katie gives us the full story...
My aunt Sharon's appeal
In 2006, my auntie, Sharon Berger was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome.
Our immediate family were tested to see if a stem cell match could be made, but unfortunately, neither of her sisters, her brother (my dad), son or daughter were a match. Ironically, we did find that my dad and his youngest sister were an exact match for each other.
Back then, donor registration involved a blood test, and so people were a bit more reluctant to sign up and the whole process wasn’t as accessible as it is today.
At one particular event, I had gone to sign up to the register, but I was told I wasn’t able to due to my asthma and eczema. I was obviously very upset not to be able to be sign up to the register, particularly as a potential match for my auntie.
On Boxing Day 2012, Sharon was diagnosed with leukaemia, and immediately my cousins stepped up the search for a stem cell donor and created the #Spit4Mum campaign (by now, spitting was all that was needed to sign up to the register).
The campaign spread across Twitter and Facebook, looking for a match. The buzz my cousins created meant that hundreds of people were registering, particularly in the Jewish community as the most likely donor was going to be an Ashkenazi Jew.
As part of the drive to look for potential donors, I helped to campaign in Jewish areas of North London, collected spit samples for testing and organised online drives, plus baked cupcake to help raise funds for Anthony Nolan. Thankfully, in May 2013, due to all of the publicity and over 1,000 people signing up to the register, a match was found for my aunt.
Katie and Neil, after their marathon
My London Marathon
After seeing the help that Anthony Nolan had given to my family, it encouraged me to support the charity and help to raise funds to enable more people to join up to the register. I always wanted to run the London Marathon before I was 30, and in July 2014 (on a bit of a whim, after spending an unusually sporty day with my cousin Caz – we attempted a run and played the worst game of tennis you could imagine) I submitted my application to run the London Marathon for Anthony Nolan.
A few weeks later, I got a call from Rebecca in the Events team at Anthony Nolan. I was immediately filled with dread – either I hadn’t got a place and wasn’t going to be able to run, or even worse, I was actually going to have to run 26.2 miles – argh!
Luckily, it was the latter and the panic quickly gave way to excitement, and then ‘OMG, what have I actually signed up for?’ set in again.
I’d done a few fun runs for charity (four miles was the most) and do a half marathon walk for a local hospice each year, but I hadn’t really realised just how far 26.2 miles was.
My marathon training
I put off my training for a little while after reading a training guide, and didn’t really start until New Year’s Day. I completed my first run (a whole 20 minutes) with my husband Neil, and immediately realised this was going to be tough. He completed a few runs with me, as did Caz, but I knew when I got to about 6 miles, I was going to be training on my own – something I wasn’t really looking forward to.
A few weeks later, luckily Neil managed to get a place running for Anthony Nolan too, and we set about training together more seriously. Week after week, the miles we ran increased, as did the all-important funds we were raising, but our knees, ankles and hips (and my elbow after a particularly nasty fall) took a bit of a beating.
The training was tough and I wanted to stop all the time, but each time I did, I just kept thinking about what, and who, I was training for and kept pushing myself.
Knowing I could raise a large amount of important sponsorship for Anthony Nolan and what that money would be able to achieve, meant that any time I felt I couldn’t take another step, I knew it wasn’t just myself that I’d be letting down, but all the people who depend on Anthony Nolan to find them a lifesaving match.
Our heroes' matching marathon tops
My marathon triumph
After almost five months of training, the day of the London Marathon finally arrived. We got ourselves to Greenwich Park for the start, and met other Anthony Nolan runners along the way.
It was great to meet other runners and find out why they were running for Anthony Nolan – everyone had a personal story and wanted to help continue the amazing work that the charity does.
We neared the start line, knee and ankle injuries in tow, and braced ourselves – we were actually going to do this! We crossed the start line together and set off. The first few miles were ok, crossing each mile marker together, hand in hand, and we were feeling pretty good!
I was helping Neil to slow down and he helped to speed me up (he’s a fast runner, but tires himself out, and I’m slow to the point it could be considered walking), but then I hit the ‘wall’ much faster than I was expecting too (around mile 9). My ankle injuries were starting to flare up and if it hadn’t have been for Neil, I’m sure I would have given up then.
We limped on (by then Neil’s knees were starting to play up) and after crossing Tower Bridge (one of the best parts of the run), we saw the Anthony Nolan cheering station at mile 13, and it lifted us like you could not believe. Seeing our friends and family, and having the Anthony Nolan supporters cheer even louder for us gave us the boost we needed so much.
We made it through to mile 22 knowing at that point we would get to see the cheering station again, and it kept up going, but after that we knew there were 4 miles to go without anyone (we were pretty slow and the spectators were starting to clear.
As we reached mile 24, we noticed a surprise Anthony Nolan cheering station, complete with our family again, and it was the final boost we needed to make it over the finish line. 5 hours 57 minutes and 10 seconds.
Not the fastest time ever, but Neil and I had completed the London Marathon. The relief of finishing it was overwhelming (I went into shock), but we then realised that as we’d been running, more people had been sponsoring us.
In total, we raised over £6,000 for Anthony Nolan – far more than we had hoped to achieve. It was amazing to know that all the effort we’d put in would be able to help to add 60 people to the register.
Katie prepares for her skydive!
My lifesaving skydive
After a huge rest, and knowing that I’d never be able to run that far again, I started thinking about what I could do next to raise even more funds for Anthony Nolan.
I’m incredibly petrified of heights, so the obvious thing to do next was a skydive! It seemed like a great idea at the time to jump out of a plane (I’m not sure why) – again, it was something that scared me, but again the thought of what could be achieved with the funds I could raise made some of my worries go away.
I signed up for the dive with my friends Sam and Victor, and for the next 8 weeks, we set about raising as much sponsorship as possible and panicked about throwing ourselves out of a plane.
We put on a pub quiz to raise awareness of Anthony Nolan, get people to sign up to the register and increase our fundraising efforts, and it was also a bit of a distraction for what we were about to do.
The three of us took it in turns to have little meltdowns about the jump, culminating in full on ‘what are we doing?!?!?’ the night before the jump. We left at 6am to drive up to Hinton Airfield, and after a nap in the car, the panic returned. We assumed we’d be jumping at 8am, but it turned out we just needed to be there to register and that it was on a first-come-first-served basis.
After a lot of faffing about from the three of us, we managed to get ourselves on the last flight of the morning, meaning we wouldn’t be jumping until midday. Great, four more hours of worrying.
As midday approached, we got into our jumpsuits and met our tandem partners – we were actually going to do this. I remember sitting in the plane thinking about my impending doom (Victor’s worried face wasn’t helping) and just decided to accept it. The plane door opened and Sam was first out.
Katie in the air
I watched as everyone jumped, and then realised it was my turn. There appeared to be a thousand butterflies in my stomach, but as I jumped, they all disappeared. The freefalling was amazing, but motion sickness quickly set in when the parachute opened.
When I finally reached the ground, I was a mix of adrenaline, excitement and nausea. It was an amazing experience (one that unlike the marathon, I think I’d definitely do again), and between the three of us, we raised over £2,200 – almost double what we were expecting. That’s another 22 people that we’ve helped to get onto the register.
The fundraising that I’ve done for Anthony Nolan has helped to find potential lifesaving matches for people in desperate need, and is definitely something I want to continue.
Knowing that a bit of effort or pushing my boundaries can help someone else and possibly save their life, whether they are a part of my family or a stranger in need, is all I need to spur me on and keep doing what I can to help and raise those all-important funds.
Next on the table, a bike ride to Paris….