OMG! I'm so excited to announce the new GVG charity partnership with Myeloma UK.
I bet so many are wondering why this charity means so much to me. Well, here's the story and it features a very lovely lady, my mum Jackie.
Mum has always had a fit bill of health until she developed a pain in her left arm. After a few months of pain, fatigue and a little uncertainty, in January 2016, my mum called me to say that she had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. The words, 'it's cancer, chick' will always stay with me.
Upon ending the call, I immediately typed 'myeloma' into Google, with the results showing some scary sentences and statistics. For those of you reading this who aren't aware of what exactly myeloma is, myeloma is a form of rare, incurable form of blood cancer and currently effects around 24,000 people in the UK. It accounts of only 2% of all cancers and develops with in plasma cells in your bone marrow (cancer in your bone marrow, WTF right?!). My heart sank as I read more and more about this disease. I saw the word 'terminal' and cried for an awful long time.
For something which I had never heard of, it all sounded pretty horrific. Then, I remember finding the Myeloma UK website, which told me that scientists are still unsure how myeloma develops but (and this is a huge BUT) it is manageable.
This is where the wonderful work of Myeloma UK comes in. Since establishing in 1997, they have changed the scary statistics to ones which give patients and their families a little more optimism:
- The average life expectancy for a patient with myeloma has quadrupled from 24 months to 4 to 8 years, with 3 out of 10 patients living for over 10 years after diagnosis.
- There is now 8 myeloma drugs available on the NHS, which can be delivered in 12 different combinations throughout a patient's treatment journey
Since mum's diagnosis, she's undergone some tough treatments, from radiotherapy, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. It's been tough on her and for all the family but she reached remission, and then relapsed again. It all sounds very frightening but this, unfortunately, is the very nature of this cancer. Thankfully, she is managing the myeloma and the symptoms with a monthly dose of chemo.
Throughout this time, I ran the Reading Half Marathon in 2017 for Myeloma UK and managed to raise over £1100 for the charity. After running 13.1 miles, my mum was there, smiling and waving me to the finish line. this was absolutely amazing, but I didn't want my work to stop there.
Here I am, knackered but still buzzing and about to eat a Dominos!
When I decided to start GVG back in 2019, my accessories business which donates to charity with every purchase, Myeloma UK was one of the first charities I contacted to support. I wanted to continue supporting their phenomenal work, help my mum and other families going through life with this disease and raise awareness through the medium of colourful handbags and accessories.
And now we're here. The Myeloma UK collection is here and I beaming with excitement and pride. I hope LOVE the range and join me in raising awareness, supporting this pretty wonderful charity.
Love,
Claire xxx
Shop the full collection here
For more information on Myeloma UK, click here
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