When Jane Handley contracted pneumonia in November 2022 in her mid-50s doctors were anxious to find out what might have sparked off the illness.
Test results, delivered shortly after Christmas that year, revealed the devastating news she had the blood cancer, Myeloma and the initial prognosis from her doctor was alarming.
Her daughter Rachel Handley said: “We were told there’s no treatment; there’s no cure. My mum thought she had better start planning her funeral. This was between Christmas and New Year and she thought: ‘this is the last one I am going to see’.”
But a consultant at Salford Royal Hospital told Jane she would be able to access treatment and she underwent gruelling courses of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
Jane, now 56, from Worsley, Manchester, also discovered she had a tumour behind her eye at the same time as the Myeloma diagnosis but after treatment for both conditions she is back to her normal self on regular medication and monthly check-ups.
Rachel, also from Worsley, is running the Tatton Park 10k in aid of Leukaemia & Myeloma Research UK after discovering the work of our charity while researching her mother’s illness. She has launched a Just Giving page and is hoping to raise as much money as possible from the event, on July 27.
Rachel said: “I’m not a runner – I did do a triathlon – but that was about 15 years ago. My training for the 10k is going okay, although I haven’t run that far before.”
She said she had been practising on different surfaces, including gravel, grass and tarmac, to prepare for the conditions at Tatton Park.
Rachel said she was impressed by what she knew of our charity’s work and our dedication to supporting research into blood cancers to help develop new treatments, particularly through the use of stem cells.
“When my mum was diagnosed we were told not to Google the condition – but of course we did,” she said. “I came across the charity during my research and thought it looked like it was well worth supporting.
“If you can donate anything at all, please do, so we can help this charity continue to make miracles happen!”
Rachel’s Just Giving page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/page/rachel-handley-1713442911979
Good luck, Rachel!
