Tom Glovers child cancer story

Well not sure how to start this as its been several years (about 16) since I have done anything with the Cancer Society, probably when I was the first President of the first Canteen set up in NZ, so it came as a bit of a shock to be asked to write a piece about what I have been up to since having a bone marrow transplant back in 1985.

For those who are new on the block and don’t know who I am, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in October of 1984 and under went the standard set of chemo until March 1985 when after a conference between the medical staff and my family we made the decision to attempted a bone marrow transplant. This was to become the first successful bone marrow transplant in Wellington hospital. Many thanks to Dr Carter, Dr Green and their superb team, and the fantastic support from my family and friends especially my sister who donated the marrow and my Gran and Mother who were constantly by my side.

The transplant preparation was very different back then . It started with chemo to kill all my red blood cells then eight hours of full body radiation, with the bone marrow then dripped in over night.It took three weeks for the new cells to start growing, in this time I was in isolation & on TPN. I finally left Wellington hospital in May with my new marrow fully grown.

So for about the past 10 years the medical team haven’t seen me because I’ve had no problems. However that doesn’t reassure my parents I’m sure that they would like the doctors to see me far more regularly.

I missed out on a year or so of school went to college and did a year at varsity thinking that I may become a psychologist, gave up on that idea as I don’t think I was ready to take on some one else’s problems as well as my own.

So left and went to work on a couple of farms then moved to Christchurch and worked as a security guard for a couple of years before heading off to Australia and then Europe where the fun really began. Worked managing a couple of bars in Aus intermingled with four wheel driving around the outback.

Moved to London just before the millennium and started working as a roady in the rock’n’roll industry, setting up for concerts and some of Europe’s biggest festival’s like Glastonbury which runs for 3 days and has 120000 concert goers and 20000 staff completly crazy lifestlye change for this little country boy.

So after a few years of doing most things that my mother told me not to do I settled down a little and toured with a symphony orchestra for a few years every summer. Come winter I would go off to Africa, America, Eastern Europe and South America for a little look around.

5 years ago I returned home with my partner Bridget and set up in Queenstown, decided that I was old enough and ugly enough to get a real job so started an apprentiship as a builder.

After trying for a family with no results I had a test to confirm that I was sterile, something that for years I tried to kid myself that I wasn’t. After much discussion with my partner we decided to utilise the donor insemination program at Otago Fertility Clinic.

Two and a half years ago we welcomed the arrival of our first son into the world, came in a hurry by caesarean section and spent a few days in intensive care so I can now appreciate a little more how my parents felt when I was diagnosed.
Eight months ago went had our second child, a girl ,so now life is really busy.

All is well now though now I can start worrying about what my little ones will get up to out there in the world.

I hope this finds everyone well and in positive spirit.

Best regards
Tom Glover