Everybody loves Mia.A diary of childhood leukaemia.

"My name is Mia Sophie Stillwell and my birthday is 16th September 2005.I live in Ryde on the Isle of Wight with Mum (Michelle), Dad (Scott) and my brother Harvey who’s 7.
Until September 2008 I was a healthy nearly 3 year old I went to nursery, swimming lessons, ballet lessons and rhythm time music classes.
I helped my Mum run a playgroup on Fridays and hung out with my Dad on the days that Mum had to work. During the summer holidays this year I spent every sunny day (there weren’t loads!) on the beach in Ryde, with Harvey and my friends.
On 9th September 2008 I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Everything changes overnight!!!!!! "

A very informative and moving account of a little girls battle with ALL.

This is the link to her website:

http://www.everybodylovesmia.co.uk/

Our Heroes 2009: Meet Anna, six, who's still smiling despite having leukaemia

WEARING her favourite bandanna, little Anna Campbell is all smiles for the camera. But that cheeky grin hides a story of bravery and courage ... the six-year-old is battling leukaemia.

To see the full story visit the daily record web page:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2009/02/25/our-heroes-2009-meet-anna-six-who-s-still-smiling-despite-having-leukaemia-86908-21150988/

Unsung hero's in the fight against Leukaemia

Johanna with Robbie Williams.

I have decided to post up from time to time, posts that I find littering the Internet, telling stories of those who have decided to make a stand against leukaemia during their lives. Some have never seen the results of their labours and efforts, but they all deserve to be remembered for the contributions that they have made in the fight against the disease.

1.Johanna MacVicar

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/12/04/johanna-macvicar-s-legacy-is-i-m-still-helping-leukaemia-sufferers-reveals-her-mum-86908-20944382/

Is there such a thing as "Celebrity Cancer" ?

I am sure that we are all (unless you have lived in a cave...or on the moon, for the last few months!) aware of the tragic story of Jade Goody, the 27 year old woman who found fame on Channel 4's Big Brother reality show.
Now diagnosed a having only weeks or months to live, she and her fiancee are due to be wed on Sunday 22nd February 2009.
As much as our hearts go out to Jade, there is a feeling within the cancer community (if there is such a thing!) that the media appears to place much more emphasis and attention on people suffering from "The big C" (as the Sun so creatively put it), if they carry some sort of celebrity status.
This is not just a cheap and arrogant pop at Jade, and in fact, to be fair, she has all the reasons in the world to turn to her advantage any generosity exhibited by the press at this awful time after her mauling not so long ago (at their hands!) after the CBB "racism" fiasco, when she was pretty well given a hell of a bashing by a wide range of journalists as they extracted every last drop of "front page frenzy" in relation to the story.

This is what is posted on various websites:

http://www.whatnow.org.uk/cancer-forums/jade-goody-and-talking-about-cancer-observer-newspaper

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=993095

http://forums.itv.com/806059/ShowThread.aspx

http://www.cancerchat.org.uk/clearspacex/thread/1156

The press it appears are very selective about what they print about cancer stories,every day people are dying from the disease, some a lot poorer and a lot younger than Jade and having had a look around some of the websites on the Internet, it appears that "ordinary folk with cancer" are getting a touch fed up with the media circus that Jade's cancer fight, appears to have become at the hands of the press and sadly the only real winners being the newspapers bank balances !.

A bunch of greedy Bankers !. Sorry....moan time again :-)

So it's been a keen subject in the news recently and it has it appears, still not finished it's run in the headlines......the banks, or more specifically, the greedy people who run them :-(.
A few questions that others apart from myself must have asked....how much money can the government possibly dish out to these organisations at the tax payers expense ? I mean surely there must be an upper limit as to just how many billions are in the coffers !.
Worst thing for me is that as i stare in disbelief as more stories about banks writing off yet more "bad loans" , the beggars are then announcing yet more bonus's for their staff !.
The analogy that I would give is this. Your mate tells you that he owes the building society £1000 quid, and if he can't get the cash asap, his family will be thrown out and be on the streets.
Imagine then if (hypothetically of course!) you dug deep and loaned him the cash...then the next day met him in the travel agents booking a luxury holiday !.OK, so it may be a little simplistic in it's comparison, but you get the general idea, and I can say with some confidence that if this was your experience, you would not be too pleased with "Mr down and out".
Banks are oh quick to tell us when we overspend our income, yet they then go and do the same thing, but boy, do they do it BIG style !.

As a parting thought, consider this. The hospital in which I work is currently undergoing a 6 year, £320 million pound renovation.At the end of the day it will provide state of the art facilities to a population of about 100,000 people, and will last for decades.
recently it was announced that one of the big banks are going to pay out bonus's of 1 BILLION POUNDS to staff........that could build 3 hospitals and provide jobs, facilities and first class health care to hundreds of thousands of people....instead a few thousand bank staff are going to get between £2500 and £25000 pounds each....and this is a bank that is having to beg handouts from Joe Public.....you !

Levi Roots to raise cash for Leukaemia Research.

Dragon’s Den star and popular entrepreneur Levi Roots is to support cancer charity Leukaemia Research at the launch of Sony Ericsson Run to the Beat, a music-inspired half-marathon taking place across London in September this year (2009).



http://www.lrf.org.uk/en/1/fun13feb09.html

Mother raising money for cancer charity CLIC Sargent

Kelly Jones of Gonerby Hill Foot (Near Grantham,Lincs) is arranging an 'It's a Knockout' event at Kesteven Rugby Football Club on Saturday, May 30, to raise money for CLIC Sargent.



http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/Mother-raising-money-for-brave.4965186.jp

Leukaemia sufferer prepares for London Marathon

A brave leukaemia sufferer from Abbots Langley will be among 46,500 runners taking part in this year’s Flora London Marathon.

Good Luck Joe !

If you want to sponsor him please visit his website donations page here:

http://www.justgiving.com/joeolival?from=UKSponsorExit

To read more about Joe's story, just follow this link:

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/4114966./

Community supports Wrexham girl, 9, diagnosed with leukaemia

A YOUNG Wrexham girl diagnosed with cancer just two days before Christmas is set for the holiday of a lifetime, thanks to the local community....

http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Community-supports-Wrexham-girl-9.4959928.jp

Cell find 'lifts leukaemia fight'

Research which sheds light on how blood cancer cells work may improve the power of leukaemia treatments.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7870333.stm

Always read the smallprint !

Ok, time for another one of my moan's (anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis will realise that this happens from time to time!).

So, whats my gripe today?......small print!!

Every day we are bombarded with advertisements telling us just how good things are, how they have been improved since the last time they told you, and how, unless you buy this or that product, your life will somehow be "incomplete" or possibly, less fun.

My question is then, how come if things are so great, the manufacturers of anything from shampoo to cars, rely on "hiding" the most interesting facts and figures in "small print"?



Examples ? Ok, how about these.......



Yogurt that "could" help you lose weight...if you eat a healthy diet and exercise more often

Kitchen cleaner "bang and the dirt is gone"...demonstrated as being instant, but look at the bottom of the screen and see that the results shown are actually attained in a much longer time frame.

Cars...oh these are a classic "what you see ain't what you get" example.

Imagine the advert (i am sure you have seen plenty!).A car driving at speed down a mountain pass it's rapid twists and turns throwing up dust and dirt, and it's rapid progress accompanied by a rocking music track .Glistening tinted windows,huge alloys wrapped in low profile tyres, and its luscious curves finished in a gorgeous metallic paint job......well that is the picture you are given, along with a price of...oh lets say £7995 "on the road". The sad fact is that this car that they have decided to hook you with is a far cry from what £7995 will buy you.The small print (yet again at the bottom of the screen) announces, in a font approx 25 times smaller that the one used for the £7995 price tag, that "Model show £10,995"...so why not either show the car that is £7995 in the advert, or perhaps show the top of the range car but this time with it's £10,995 ticket ?

Personally I think that this is yet again an example of dishonest marketing, although i am sure that it would not take the sellers more than a nano second to pipe up "It's all in the small print"!

How about this one. How many times is a price put to you as 399 ,799 or 199...what happened to "£" or "pounds".........are they worried in case the "P" word puts us off of buying.....maybe we should walk in to the shop, stick £3.99 on the counter and ask for the three piece to be delivered next week.I am sure that the suffix of the word "hundred pounds " would not take long to be mentioned at that point !.

Just a few examples of "slick" marketing techniques, but there are a lot more to be seen in a normal days TV viewing......see how many you can spot, and tell me of some examples you have noticed :-)

What a strange world we live in !

Actors who get payed vastly more than real doctors simply for "pretending" to be one !

A movie industry that spends hundreds of millions of pounds making films about some tough nut or other pretending to save the world,when the money they squander on production costs could feed millions of starving people for years !

Politicians telling us all to stop wasting resources,go green and help the environment.....then they jump into a 4 litre Range Rover, get driven over to the airport, step onto a gas guzzling jet and "pop" over to the States or somewhere to attend a "Climate conference" !

I have often said that if aliens ever did bother to visit us, they would probably have a bloody good laugh at how futile our civilization really is!...then either go straight back home, or possibly give us a good thrashing at "Real space invaders" before trying to put some sense back into our rather mixed up lives !. Don't worry though, i am sure that if Bruce Willis or Arnie were free that day, they would sort them out for us..."Has ta la vista baby" :-)

Coffee-child leukaemia link probed

Coffee-child leukaemia link probed.

Scientists are looking into the possibility that drinking large amounts of coffee whilst pregnant can increase the risks of childhood leukaemia in babies.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/latest-east-midlands-news/Coffeechild-leukaemia-link-probed.4912642.jp

Student on a Caribbean holiday dies from leukaemia she didn't know she had

This story just goes to show that Leukaemia doesn't just affect the very young or the old, anyone can fall ill with it at anytime and crucially, at any age............

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1129623/Student-Caribbean-holiday-dies-leukaemia-didnt-know-had.html

Jarrow teen's Leukaemia death still a mystery

Another heartbreaking story of a child lost to an apparently unknown type of Leukaemia.....

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2009/02/04/jarrow-teen-s-leukaemia-death-still-a-mystery-72703-22852490/