Shropshire's Thea on fundraising mission after story of survival

The next she was sitting in front of a doctor being told she was seriously ill with leukaemia and being escorted into an isolation room at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Within 24 hours the 37-year-old had embarked on her first of four cycles of chemotherapy and told she wouldn't be discharged for quite some time.

Since that day in December, Thea has battled back to health.

And she is now furiously fundraising to say thank you to staff at the hospital's blood cancer department, who she says saved her life.

Thea is hosting The Wig Bash at the Boyne Arms at Burwarton, south Shropshire, on June 6. It is billed as a night of fun, frivolity, feasting and fundraising.

Tickets are £10 to include barbeque food, music and a raffle and auction. There is also the chance to camp overnight and enjoy a breakfast and organised walk up the Brown Clee the following day.

The money raised, which will include half the ticket price will go to her appeal fund to be divided between Ward 23 and the O'Connor Unit at Shrewsbury hospital.

Not content with that she will line up at Telford's Race for Life tomorrow with her sister Tanya and sister-in-law Katie Wilson to help other cancer charities. Katie is also holding a ladies pamper night on the July 4 at the Oswestry Rugby Club to add money to the growing appeals pot. Her aim is to raise £3,000.

Thea's life came crashing down on December 5 last year after a couple of months of feeling a "tad under the weather" and having bruises appear on her body.

"I went to the doctors but because I didn't tick any of the other boxes for leukaemia, such as exhaustion, I was told it was possible a platelet disorder.

"I suppose I have a high pain threshold and an Irish stubborn streak. I even ran 10k the day before I was diagnosed. I ran because deep down I knew I was sick and wanted to just see the sun rise. It's funny how your body tells you something but your head says shut up you can do this."

Eventually she became so poorly the hospital carried out a bone marrow biopsy.

She said: "That day they sat me down and told me that I was seriously ill with an aggressive leukaemia, I was a medical emergency and my hair was going to fall out.

"I looked across to my mum and told her 'I'm sorry' then I asked my doctor and Macmillan clinical Nurse specialist nurse Bridget Atkins 'What do I need to do?'.

"A piece of paper was handed to me with my treatment regime. I looked at it and counted the numbers and asked 'so in five months I will be done?' I had no idea that getting me through the first month was a challenge in itself.

"I was taken there and then, to an isolation room on ward 23. There was just no time to come to terms with what was happened."

Thea was told she had seriously low platelets, the clotting mechanism in the blood, and that she was in serious danger from internal bleeding. She had a rare, APML leukaemia, something that strikes just 100 people a year.

"I was so very lucky. If I had fallen running, or been kicked by the horses the day before, I would not be here to tell this story.

When she was told she would have to start chemotherapy the next day Thea's first thought was her long blonde hair.

"I rang my friend, Sam Richards, a hairdresser from Tony & Guy and explained I wasn't allowed to leave hospital but wanted my hair cut so that I could donate it to the charity that makes wigs for children with cancer. The Little Princess Charity in Hereford

"It was so long it would have been awful for it not to be put to good use."

She was to spend the next five weeks in isolation and undergo four infusions of chemotherapy and bags and bags of blood products.

Thea's mum, Jan, celebrated giving her 80th blood donation. Now she has seen first hand how being a blood donor saves lives.

Her daughter was allowed home to her house four a couple of hours on Boxing Day. But Thea admitted: "To be honest, I would so used to my isolation bubble it felt dangerous in the outside world and I just wanted to go back into hospital."

When she was eventually allowed home and went to live with her mother in Oswestry she still had to be extremely careful because the continuing chemotherapy affected her immune system.

She said: "I even had to be careful about what I ate - no blue cheese, steak, pate, all my favourites nothing unpasteurised, no prepared salads or even pic-a-mix because other people could have handled the sweets."

Her positive attitude helped her combat the "chemo hangover".

She added: "I took anti-sickness pills to manage the nausea, but after each cycle finished I'd stop them, not matter how ill I felt i would go out for a walk with mum instead. Fresh air always was and still is the best medicine. Ginger beer in fact anything ginger was also great to stop me feeling sick. Chemo really is horrible but having a positive frame of mind really does help."

In fact, the only time she broke down was when a cruel twist of fate saw her beloved, 12-year-old chocolate Labrador, Saffy, fall ill and be diagnosed with leukaemia. She couldn't fight the cancer and was put to sleep at home on her sheepskin in front of her log fire.

Thea said: "It was the only time I cried. I couldn't believe it."

Less than six months after her diagnosis and 10 weeks after her last round of chemotherapy, Thea is back working in hospitals up and down UK supporting Interventional Cardiologists in her role as a product specialist for a medical devices company and living normally, back to running up and down Shropshire hills in her home village. She even has a new pet, a rescue dog called Poppy.

"I still have to have a bone marrow aspiration every 12 weeks for the next three years to monitor the health of my blood factory, the leukaemia could relapse but I still have options for further treatment. I can be given Arsenic Trioxide instead of chemotherapy to put me back into a second remission."

But it is not something she dwells on and instead is busy organising her fundraiser.

"The blood unit saved my life - I want to give something back," she said.

"Today I am feeling brave, strong and empowered by the support and love of people around me, so I am telling the world I'm still here and it didn't get me.

"At the beginning of December I heard those fateful words. You have a blood cancer. In my heart I thought ' I am really scared' in my head I thought 'right, two choices, live or live, let's do this.

"So I did. I can wear Lycra again, bake cakes and most of all spend time with the people I care about. Losing this fight was never an option and even though some days were and still are dark, the sun would and will always come out."