By ! Robey Lawrence

27 February 2008

I was diagnosed with Acute Myloid Leukemia on 22nd of June 1999, and was

flown down to sydney Children's Hospital with my dad on the next day. i

was immediately admitted to the intensive care unit where i had to have

a complete blood transfusion and commenced an intense chemotherapy

treatment that would last six months. We knew the chemo would cause me

to lose all my hair, so dad promised that when i went bald he would too,

and if you look at the photos of dad before, you would realize that is a

big promise!While still in ICU i got fluid on the lungs and so had to be

connected to breathing machine, that machine didnt like me and caused

internal bleeding behind both my eyes, i had lengthy operations on eyes

and both operations had errors and took around 6 hours each. the result

being poor vision (but good enough with contact lenses). A catheter in

my leg caused a nasty infection which caused discolouration and my skin

to die etc. My Gall Bladder decided to die as well and had to have that

removed.

the last step of the treatment would involve a Bone Marrow Transplant

(BMT). it is very difficult to find a matching bone marrow donor, but i

was obviously meant to survive as two of my brothers were a perfect

match! so Jayden the lucky kid got to have an operation where a large

needle was injected into his spine to remove some bone marrow for me.

on the 7th of December i had the BMT, which turned out successful! :)

Although i spent the millenium celebrations in my cell and nine months

in total in hospital i am alive and thankful.

since then i have only participated in the shave for a cure once before,

so i think its time for round two!:P

the money goes towards things like:

-transportation for patients to lifesaving operations.

-nearby accomodation for family members.

-counselling services for immediate family.

etc.

so why not shave this year?

its only hair, it will grow back.

Mine Did :)

you can sponsor me, http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/profile.php?id=390273

or My girlfriend www.jpgmag.com/people/melyeah, who is also shaving, http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/profile.php?id=390329

It would mean so much to the patients, even though they may not know who you are, you still get a great feeling, and you're saving lives too, its a win win.

God Bless

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