Cancer sufferer docks in Kent
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Video from Laura Garcia,
Qandeel Warrich and Lizzie Massey
by Qandeel Warrich
A 26-year-old who overcame a rare
cancer has stopped in Kent as he sails around the UK
encouraging more people to become bone marrow donors.
Oliver Rofix, pictured
below, leaves Chatham today on the final leg of his
seven-month round trip, in the boat he built with his father
while receiving treatment.
He decided to make
the voyage after a stranger's donation allowed
him to have a life-saving bone marrow
transplant when he was suffering from Leukaemia.
It comes just six years after Oliver, then 20, was
diagnosed with the rarest known type of the disease. His is one of
only three documented cases, and both the others were fatal.
Oliver was on a night out with friends when his dad went to find
him to break the news. What started off as a severe headache
and tiredness turned out to be cancer, a word he "immediately
associated with death".
It was the beginning of endless hours
of treatments: chemotherapy, radiotherapy, weekly lumbar punctures
and a Hickman Line, a 4mm catheter inserted through his chest into
his heart for 18 months.
It was also decided he needed a
bone marrow transplant but Oliver wasn't able to go to
his family - 70% of people in need of a bone marrow transplant
cannot receive a donation from family members. Thankfully, he found
an alternative donor.
While receiving treatment working on
his boat , The Jolly Olly which started out as a wreck,
gave him the focus and strength to get better. He would plan
what he had to do and his father would work on the boat while
Oliver was in hospital. Daily progress videos kept him busy and his
mind focused on getting better.
He said: "Whenever I was feeling down,
I would imagine the sheer delight of my boat on the river at
Aldeburgh, my mates, a pint of Adnams and fish and chips!"
When he had recovered and the boat was
finished, Oliver set off from London, to raise awareness of
the need for more donors on the bone marrow register.
"The whole country has been
fantastic," he said. "Literally, I turn up at the marina and hope
for the best. People come to see the boat…I end up going out with
them for dinner, or have dinner with them on their boat."
Wednesday, October 26 2011
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