Hans’ £10,000 thankyou (From Haringey Independent)

Hans’ £10,000 thankyou

8:50am Saturday 22nd November 2008

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A CANCER survivor celebrated ten years of recovery by raising more than £10,000 for Leukaemia Research and winning an award.

Hans Meijer, 51, of Inderwick Road in Crouch End, aimed to raise £1,000 for every year of good health since his successful bone marrow transplant in 1998.

Mr Meijer said: “The way I raised the money was to ask absolutely everyone for help. I asked voluntary organisations. I asked businesses. I even asked the milkman and he waived my bill.”

Mr Meijer was diagnosed with cancer in 1997 when he fell ill while touring as manager of a chamber orchestra in the Netherlands.

After feeling a pain in his side similar to a stitch, he knew something was wrong and asked his assistant to take him to hospital.

Within two hours doctors diagnosed chronic myleloid leukaemia.

Mr Meijer said: “I had planned my 40th birthday party for two days’ time. Instead, my sister had to call all the people I had invited and tell them the party was cancelled and why.”

Mr Meijer also had to break the news to his girlfriend Anne, who he had been seeing for just over a year.

He said: “I told her ‘I don’t expect you to go on this journey with me’ and that I would understand if she didn’t want to stay with me.

“If we had been married for ten years it would have been different but I couldn’t make that assumption. We were still living in different countries.”

Anne had other ideas and surprised him with her own proposal soon after.

Mr Meijer was told his best chance of recovery would be with a bone marrow transplant and he received his from a Welsh donor in January 1998. The transplant was a success and he went into remission for two years until 2000, when his symptoms came back.

He said: “I felt devastated. I had just taken on buying a new house and I asked my consultant what I should do.

“He said ‘Just get on with it.’ I have never regretted taking his advice.”

A further donation of lymphocyte bone marrow from Mr Meijer’s donor saved his life a second time and since then his cancer has not come back.

This year he decided to say thankyou to everyone involved in saving his life with his huge fundraising campaign. In July he took part in the London Bikeathon, which raises money for leukaemia research, winning the George Melmouth Cup for the top individual fundraiser.

The cup is awarded in memory of George Melmouth, who lost his battle with leukaemia six years ago.

Mr Meijer added: “I wanted to raise the funds to say thankyou for saving the lives of people we love and to give something back.

“It is in memory of those who have not made it, and because every single day, advances in cancer research are being made.”

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