Mum saved by ‘Internet drug’

[bongme]

hi

ManchesterNews Online

13th Wed March 2002

TWELVE months ago mother of four Joanne Brown feared she was dying from chronic leukaemia.

But thanks to a new "wonder drug" which her husband Tony learned about on the Internet, she now has the disease in remission and feels fighting fit.

Joanne was the first person in the north west to be treated with the drug Glivec, from Switzerland, which replaces the need for conventional chemotherapy, but costs £20,000 a year .

Because of her age and young family, Joanne qualified for the drug on the NHS. Now, as a "thank you", she has embarked on a fund-raising campaign with her sister Julie Burgess and brother Ray Broadsmith.

An event at her local British Legion club raised over £2,500 for leukaemia departments at Manchester and Warrington hospitals, thanks to a raffle and auction, which included a signed Manchester United shirt.

Joanne’s nightmare started in the summer of 2000 when she felt ill and depressed as she constantly got cold sores and was unable to fight off infections.

"I was basically dying," said Joanne, who was eventually diagnosed with chronic myloid leukaemia.

Julie and Ray were both tested to see if they had compatible bone marrow, but they hadn’t. Her husband Tony went on the internet to research the condition and discovered a new treatment was available with a drug from Switzerland.

New lease of life

Soon after she started taking it Joanne was like a new woman.

Tony, an HGV driver, said: "I discovered there was a new drug which had been trialed in the United States for the past three years which was proving very successful."

On her next visit to the specialist, Joanne was told of two possible treatments and opted for the new drug as a "guinea pig."

"After seeing the research on the Internet that people in the States had been clear for three years it was quite easy to make a decision," added Joanne, who now simply takes a tablet every day, instead of having to undergo the gruelling side effects of chemotherapy.

"The drug has put the cancer into remission and people can not believe how bubbly I am now. It has given me a new lease of life.

"I will never be given the all clear and I wouldn’t like to tempt fate by saying I have been cured but I know that I have got my life back and that I am very lucky."

Joanne, who works in a bar and lives in Lymm, Cheshire, still has to travel to Manchester Royal Infirmary, every three months, to check that the disease is still in remission.

But it is a small price to pay for having her life back and enjoy being with her husband and their four children, Angela 21, Philip 19, Daniel 14 and Jonathan, 12.

Bongme