C/O 25 Victoria Terrace
Lanchester
Durham
DH7 0JB
United Kingdom

NB: this is a forwarding address for the Pal, we do NOT disclose home addresses

Email Pal

Emma B's Parents/Guardians

Ruth & Steven

Emma B's Siblings

Kieran 30/09/2001 (Emma's bone marrow donor). He eats, sleeps and breathes football and loves Newcastle United.

Emma B's Interests

Emma enjoys dressing up, colouring in, cooking, playing with her toy rabbits and puppies (one day hopes to have a real-life dog when her immune system is strong enough) and playing nurses.

Emma B's Favourite Colour

Pink

Is Emma B able to read?

Yes

Is Emma B able to use hands?

Yes

Is Emma B visually/hearing impaired?

No

Does Emma B suffer from any developmental delay?

No

Emma is having a bone marrow transplant so please read our infection control page here.

Story written 2010

Emma was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia on 25th March 2008. Although it was not an easy process, two rounds of intense chemo and maintenance treatment put Emma into remission. All the signs were positive and Emma was given a good chance of beating the illness.

However, in October 2009, came the devastating news that Emma had relapsed and the leukaemia had returned in her central nervous system and her bone marrow. Five months of high dose chemo managed to get Emma in remission for the second time, however a bone marrow transplant including total body irradiation and cranial radiotherapy was Emma’s only hope of remaining in remission.

Luckily Emma’s older brother Kieran was found to be a perfect match and he instantly agreed to be Emma’s donor. Emma had her bone marrow transplant on 9th April 2010 and has suffered many complications since then, mainly Graft vs. host disease of the gut and skin. Emma remains in hospital receiving treatment for GVHD at present but hopes to be home soon.

Update 31st August 2010

Thank you again to everyone who has written to Emma this month, especially those who send us pictures of their dogs! Special thanks to the lady from Cyprus who runs the rescue dog centre, she named a dog after Emma which was so lovely – Emma was particularly happy about that.

Emma’s had a (dare I say?) good month, she has had a lot more energy and is beginning to want to do things again. We have seen the little sparkle back in her recently which had been missing since her transplant. It is so nice to see her laughing and enjoying herself again. We pray it continues to improve as we know there are no guarantees but for now things are good and we are just taking it day by day.

Update 5th August 2010

Emma is back at home once again and hopefully this time she might stay here a little longer without giving us any more scares. Emma’s energy levels are incredibly low and she is sleeping a lot of the time but that is hardly surprising considering the amount of treatment she has had over the last 2 years. We have a long way to go but we are definitely making progress, albeit very slow! We hope and pray that things continue to go in the right direction – it is a case of taking it day by day.

Post Pals is not only keeping Emma going, but also the rest of us too! It is an absolute joy to read all of the letters, e mails, cards and postcards which people take the time to write. I cannot begin to thank everyone enough – you have all helped us to smile on really horrible days.

Update 28th July 2010

Very good news from Emma’s doctor - it is not a leukaemia relapse which is causing Emma’s latest problems. She has been very lucky indeed as we did fear the worst. There is another blood disorder called TTP which is stopping Emma’s new bone marrow producing platelet cells and haemoglobin. Her white cells have recovered after some GCSF booster but the doctor says we might never find out the reason why the white cells dipped also. Hopefully the TTP disorder will rectify itself but if not they can treat this with plasmas. All very complicated but manageable.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent us kind messages and presents. They really do keep Emma smiling.

Update 22nd July 2010

Sadly Emma is back in hospital. At first it looked like an infection but gradually things are looking more worrying. We are waiting for the results of several tests and waiting for a suitable time to take a bone marrow sample.

Emma is very low at the moment but always has a smile on her face when she gets mail from Post Pals.

Update 2nd July 2010

Emma has been allowed to come home from hospital. Although Emma is really pleased to be out of hospital, it is still very difficult at home as Emma must stay isolated from everyone except for her family and she is also feeling very weak. Hospital visits are every other day for check ups and medication but hopefully with time this will reduce, all being well. We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed now that all this treatment has done its job although only time will tell and for now it feels like a waiting game yet again.

THANK YOU to everyone who has written, e-mailed and sent Emma lovely gifts over the last month. It has become the highlight of our day to open Emma’s post and it really does put a huge smile on her face each time she has mail. It is so lovely to know that there are some kind and thoughtful people out there who are willing to spend a little time to write to Emma and they all make a massive difference. Thank you so much! Post Pals is such a wonderful idea and we are so pleased to be involved with it.