A BALLYNANTY man whose wife suffers from leukaemia is hoping to get people on board for the Barrington’s Hospital Great Limerick Run to raise funds for charity.
Bob Halvey is trying to drum up support and funds for the Bone Marrow for Leukaemia Trust, a charity in which he has been significantly involved in the last two years.
His wife Majella Meade was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in May 2012 and had a stem cell transplant three months later. She has been fighting the illness ever since and Bob now wishes to give something back to a charity that has been most helpful to him in recent months.
He said: “I’m trying to organise as many people as I can that would be interested in running the Barrington’s Hospital Great Limerick Run on behalf of this tremendous charity.
“It’s one of the highest profile events in Limerick and has been for a number of years. I know that lots of people are willing to run it for charity and I’ve done it before in aid of Milford Hospice.
“For people based outside of Dublin, the Bone Marrow for Leukeamia Trust provides an apartment for the patient and their family for a few weeks after the transplant.
“They do great work and they wouldn’t be very well known in Limerick. I had never heard of them until my wife was diagnosed with leukaemia.”
Bob explained that while Majella was fortunate to find a suitable bone marrow match, many other leukaemia sufferers do not get matched easily. He added that he has already received substantial support for his venture on Sunday May 4.
“It’s not only financial contributions that the charity needs. They also need blood donations and people to join an unmatched bone marrow donor registry.
“My wife was lucky enough to find a perfect match but others we’ve dealt with were not as fortunate. Sometimes we could be looking all over the world to find a suitable match.
“I’ve had great support from my family, from people in Dell and Flextronics and even from people that I don’t know. Local businesses are also getting behind us by putting up posters and displaying collection boxes.”
