Leukaemia survivor Lesley Calder scales Ben Nevis and walks Great Glen Way for blood cancer charity DKMS
A woman who survived acute myeloid leukaemia scaled the UK’s highest peak, Ben Nevis, before spending six days walking the Great Glen Way in Scotland.
Lesley Calder, 59, raised £1,800 for blood cancer charity DKMS in the process – she runs the good cause’s Herts and Essex volunteering hub to recruit lifesaving stem cell donors.
After Lesley, a Bishop’s Stortford resident, was diagnosed in 2019, she received a transplant from her sister Ann.
The mayor of Bishop’s Stortford, Cllr Richard Townsend, has adopted the organisation as one of his chosen charities for this civic year, and Lesley used the carnival and fun day on Saturday (June 21) as an opportunity to recruit new donors.
Every 14 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer, and the disease is the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK, claiming nearly 13,000 lives annually.
More than 2,000 people a year in the UK need a blood stem cell transplant, but only 7% of the eligible population are registered as potential donors.
DKMS stands for Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei, which translates as “German bone marrow donor centre”. It was founded in Germany in 1991 and launched in the UK in 2013.
It is the biggest stem cell register in the UK, with over a million potential donors, and has helped to give more than 2,500 people a second chance at life.
While Lesley was saved by her sister, only one in three blood cancer sufferers finds a match in their family.
Lesley said: “There’s so many things that people don’t realise are so tough when you have cancer. There are friends that I made in the hospital who weren’t there when I went back, which was very difficult. I spent so much time in treatment and away from home, and couldn’t attend my son Max’s university graduation.”
After her treatment, Max, a former student at Birchwood High School and Herts & Essex High School, donated to a stranger in the USA.
He said: “I first heard about DKMS through Mum’s transplant journey. I realised how lucky she was that she had a donor, so joining the register felt like it was the least I could do.
“My donation means a lot for Mum – it’s very much a full circle moment and I feel like I could pay it forward.”
Lesley is now five years cancer-free and founded the DKMS Herts and Essex Volunteering Hub last September, organising a string of registration events.
After her epic walk of 117km (73 miles) from Fort William to Inverness and climbing 1,345m (4,413ft) to the peak of Ben Nevis in the Grampian Mountains last month, Lesley said: “Celebrating five cancer-free years, post-transplant, has been an enormous milestone for me.
“I’m so glad to be healthy again and capable of taking on a challenge like this. I want to help give more people the second chance that I’ve had. It costs £40 to register each new potential donor, so I’m so grateful for any support people can give to our fundraising efforts.”
DKMS spokesperson Anna Norman said: “Lesley is absolutely amazing. The fact that she was able to take on a huge challenge like this shows how stem cell transplants can totally transform people’s lives.
“We’re so glad she has decided to channel her energy into supporting other families affected by blood cancer, by raising awareness and funds for DKMS UK.
“Every day, people around the country join the stem cell donor register through DKMS, hoping to give patients a second chance at life, but we rely on fundraising in order to register them, so we’re so grateful to Lesley and her friends for their support for our mission.”
To join the donor register, see dkms.org.uk. To support Lesley’s fundraising efforts, see dkms.enthuse.com/pf/lesley-great-glen-way-challenge.