My name is Brian Gamley and my story is two-fold in that it starts with what I call, ”Leukemia cousin” - Neutropenia! I lived with this blood disorder for 57+ yrs and for the first 35 years no name had been given to it until I attended at the Mayo Clinic in 1988.
I trudged along for years, was able to work until 1997 just after I turned 44. I was sick with infections and also going nuts trying to figure out what was going on. I could not work anymore, and due to uncertainty in my future I lost any ability to read! Some may think that is nothing but when you lose your ability to concentrate and analyze things or try to figure out what you are doing wrong and lying in a hospital bed - again, life is scary.
Living with a blood disorder, which basically means no lines of defense from infection, is not easy. But I was and still am STUBBORN, RELENTLESS and a FIGHTER for myself others and what I thought needed to be done. I had a tremendous will to live, obstacles in the way, but a loving and caring family who had seen me on deaths door and slow recoveries. That is not the life for anyone, but especially your kids, to grow up with.
In May 2011, and I was told I needed a Bone Marrow Transplant and the search was on. I was put in isolation for 11 days, then sent home with advice that I had lived with for 57 years. Only this time I was aware that any infection could easily be critical so at first I stayed home but then I thought, “I can’t just lie here and die,” so I went and started getting outside and around.
It was thru One Match and Be the Match that a donor was found. A perfect 10/10 match, not related and lived in a different country. She is and always will be my ANGEL whom I had the great pleasure of meeting. I also have a new family who I have met a few of.
None of this would have been possible without the miracle of science and the dedicated health workers who make this possible. What the staff in hospitals clinics etc. have to do and see every day is horrible. They helped me so, so much with their personal care each and every time I was in hospital.
I am walking to raise money for much-needed research for Leukemia and other blood diseases in hope that someday, possibly a cure could be found and also to raise funds to help educate patients, families and others about the unkindly disease called Leukemia.
I grew up just outside of Brandon and spent my high school years in Brandon so I will hopefully see a couple of people that I haven‘t seen for years. I will be walking in Winnipeg on Set. 28 and I am also walking in Brandon on Oct. 5 which is my 8th re-birthday!
