At 26, John was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer of the lymphatic system. It was just two weeks before he was set to marry his fiancé Leigh. The couple were devastated. After months of treatment, John finally went into remission. “You beauty!” he thought.
Things were looking up. But then some unusual pain in his chest rang alarm bells. The doctors were frank – he’d relapsed and it wasn’t good. The stakes were even higher this time – Leigh was pregnant. The thought of leaving Leigh a single mum, and his baby without a father, was terrifying.
Meet John and Leigh and their lovely family.
It’s now been over ten years, and John and Leigh have three kids and a cat named Rascal. John knows that he wouldn’t be here without the researchers who work to discover new treatments for cancer.
“Researchers are the ‘unsung heroes’ of cancer. Without research, there’s no treatment. Without treatment there’s no survival, there’s only death… Research is the gateway to a new life,” John says.
While John and Leigh live life with gratitude and optimism, the fear of relapsing is always there. They now hope that new treatments will be available if their greatest fears are realised and the cancer returns.
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