Patient stories

“The difficulty of it was, I went through all of that, and it didn’t work.”

“It was very hard for my daughters. Initially, they were scared, and they couldn’t accept it.”

"I was so relieved because I knew once they found something, we could work with it."

"Dance saved me – it’s in my blood."

"I think it’s about time that I actually go find out what’s happening. Because now it doesn’t feel like anaemia. It feels like something else.”

"One doctor told me that if I hadn’t gone to get sorted when I did, I may have only had another fortnight, if I was lucky. That was a wake-up call."

“We can’t go to playgrounds where Tommy can play with other kids. We’ve got to keep driving until we see a playground with nobody on it – it’s sad.”

“She sat me down and said, ‘If you don’t have a transplant, you’re not going to make it through the year.’”

"It’s hard to look back on that day. It’s almost like a story that I tell myself."

“I didn’t know what she wanted to talk about. And then she gave me eight weeks to live.”

“I’ve got amazing friends and family – they’ve all been there when I’ve needed them… And sometimes just being there is the best thing they can do.”

“They said, ‘If you go home, Vonda, you’ll be dead in 72 hours.’”

“Then we were at the point we’re at now, which was staring down our final treatment option – the second transplant.”

"I said to the doctor, ‘I can tolerate pain. But I can’t tolerate this.’”