Rebecca

Rebecca is 15 years old and lives in Tividale near Birmingham. She was diagnosed with CML at the beginning of May this year. She had been feeling tired for at least 2 months prior to her diagnosis. The reason Becky went to the doctors was because she was bruising very easily and having bruises coming on her body without any reason. The doctor told us that she would have to have blood tests at the hospital. We went to Sandwell hospital and the blood tests took 4 hours to come back.

We were told she had CML by an adult haemotologist, he said the reason he was telling us this and not a childrens one was because usually only adults have CML. Becky was then admitted to Sandwell and transferred to Birmingham Childrens Hospital to see Dr Sarah Lawson. The day she was admitted her white blood count was 381. The next day it went up to 521. The normal level is between 4 and 11. She went on a machine to take off her excess white blood cells and was took back to Sandwell. She was then going back and forth to Birmingham to see Dr Lawson. Becky is currently on Glivec and is waiting to see if she responds to it. She will have a bone marrow transplant within the next two years. She is trying to go back to school part time at the moment but feels really tired. The symptoms she had before she was diagnosed were tiredness, night sweats and brusing.