On 21st December 2020, Gary Fletcher’s wife Bernadette, was sadly diagnosed with Very Severe Aplastic Anaemia (VSAA). This extremely rare disease causes the bone marrow to not function properly, leading to no white and red blood cells and platelets being produced.
Bernadette, an oncology nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge for 34 years, has cared for many cancer patients and although Gary is unable to help her in person, he is instead aiming to cover 1,084 virtual miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
“I have a choice; Bernadette doesn’t. I want to do something to help her and others that are suffering with VSAA. A lot of people have said I haven’t had time to do this. For things like this, you make time to do this.”
Gary, PrimaGO Product Leader, is planning to complete the trek by May 15, the time that Bernadette should be ready for her next round of treatment.
Having already raised over £4,000 for the Aplastic Anaemia Trust, Gary would also like to help raise awareness of the charity:
“I’m doing this not just to raise money for research, but to raise the profile of how important it is to give blood in the current climate so we can save people’s lives. It’s a priority for me to try and save my wife’s life and funding research into the future is a way to do that. We want to be pushing the fact that donating blood, platelets and bone marrow is life-saving. Hopefully it will be the best birthday present she has ever had.”
If you’d like to donate to Gary’s fundraiser, please visit: https://primso.co/garysfundraiser. To donate a bone marrow, visit: https://www.anthonynolan.org/ or to give blood, go to: https://www.blood.co.uk/
To learn more about the Aplastic Anaemia Trust, visit their website at: https://www.theaat.org.uk/.
