13. The New Bike

(Last day of Sinclair Trip; Matt & Tom at Loch Lomond; Observer Mag)

The waiting continues... I was hoping to find out this week (or last) if I have a matched bone marrow donor but due to the hold up with DNA testing, it seems there is no progress to report. I was also hoping to write the news on my 13th blog update and prove that 13 isn't always an unlucky number...

Things have well and truly settled back into the old routine as they were before the wedding and the honeymoon. All the blood tests have been coming back fine and although my platelets are still a bit on the low side the doc told me I could, if I wanted to, go back on the rugby field and start playing again. Didn't go down too well with my wife, her mum and my mum. Think I'll just keep the boots hanging in retirement and resort to the tipping comps and shouting from the sidelines. The rules with retired players are pretty simple - the older you get, the better you were.

My 2nd PCR test (6 month) came back last week. I was expecting a follow up call from the Professor and she caught me off guard...as I jumped out of the shower, I ran out into the bedroom and picked up my phone whilst dripping on the carpet. I guess I could say the call was both good and bad. The good news is that it had halved from 14% and gone down to 7%...great I thought but something in the tone of her voice meant that it wasn't so good. The concern was that, although it was going down in the right direction, they were hoping for the test to come back with a reading of 2-3%. The dose will remain the same and after another 2 weeks I'll receive another PCR test and then the dreaded bone marrow biopsy using a needle the size of a javelin...

The second Bone Marrow Clinic was also run recently...it was held at a local hospital and the turn out wasn't too bad. Could have been better if there wasn't a fire alarm leaving all the women from the hospital outside checking out the men in yellow.

On the 25th June I've signed myself up for the Anthony Nolan bike from Glasgow to Loch Lomond and before I knew it, I'd been persuaded to join the Pedal for Scotland bike ride (27th August), only finding out later that it's from Glasgow to Edinburgh (a lazy 50 miles). It'd be good to get out on the road and breath in some fresh scottish air I thought...only thing is that I don't even have a bike...time to hit eBay and sort something out. Probably end up cruising across the country on a kids BMX with my eBay skills...

The article that went out in the Observer newspaper last weekend ended up being a great result for both me and the Anthony Nolan Trust. The key message was to increase the amount of people on the donor list and it looks like we were quite successful in doing that. I still have to be hopeful that I will be found a match but the goal is still the same - find everyone that is waiting some new marrow a perfectly matched donor...

"Being a bone-marrow donor is as easy as giving blood. People think it involves some gruesome operation where the marrow is sucked out of your bones. Medication is given for five days to boost stem cells in the bloodstream, then the blood is simply taken out of the vein and the stem cells extracted. It's as easy as that, over in three hours, and you've potentially saved someone from dying of cancer."