A RECOVERING leukaemia patient who devotes her time to raising awareness, campaigning Government and raising money for blood cancer charities, including Anthony Nolan, has been shortlisted for a Pride of Britain Award.
Katherine Sinfield from Burton on Trent is one of only four finalists in the East and West Midlands region filmed by ITV for the next round of judging. Between Monday, September 8 and Thursday, September 11, each of the four finalists will have a two-minute video of their efforts broadcast on the ITV regional news.
A judge will then decide on Friday, September 12, which one of these four finalists should make it to the grand celebrity-filled finals in London hosted by Carol Vorderman.
Katherine, age 34, was filmed by ITV on Thursday, August 28. During her interview she spoke about her efforts to increase blood and stem cell donors as well as her efforts to raise money for blood cancer charities.
Now in remission from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) following a stem cell transplant in October 2013, Katherine has been the driving force behind a continuing media campaign in the local press (Burton Mail). It is this campaign which also saw her gain praise from the Prime Minister a few months ago.
'Just getting to this point has been a tremendous achievement'
Katherine said: “It was a shock when I received the telephone call from ITV and it was even more of a shock when I realised that I was just one of four people from the entire East and West Midlands region to get this far.
“I would love to make the grand finals in London but just getting to this point has been a tremendous achievement. I’m just thankful to have an entire two-minute slot on the news as this in itself will hopefully raise further awareness and may even generate a few extra charity donations.
“Since my diagnosis with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) in April 2013, I have thrown myself into helping others who may find themselves in similar unfortunate situations. I want to help the charities and organisations which have thrown me a lifeline and this work will continue in the future.
“I am immensely grateful to the medical staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham – especially Professor Charlie Craddock and the doctors at the Centre for Clinical Haematology plus the nurses in ward 625 for bringing me back from a very dark place into remission.”
The Burton Mail highlight Katherine's story
Primary school teacher Katherine Sinfield was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia in April 2013. Shortly after starting treatment, she decided that she wanted to help raise awareness of the condition while raising money for charity.
With the help of the local newspaper – the Burton Mail – Katherine started to write a daily diary on life living with leukaemia as searches were being carried out to find a suitable bone marrow match - a transplant was her only means of survival as the leukaemia was very advanced when diagnosed.
It is still published daily in print and online via the Burton Mail as well as in full on Katherine’s website: www.katherines-story.com
Katherine's work for Anthony Nolan
Not intent on raising awareness of leukaemia, Katherine also set to work thinking of ways to raise money for blood cancer charities.
Plans were soon being formed for a fund-raiser which would be ‘a memorable spectacle’ to raise awareness as well as funding.The result was a motorcycle rally under the name of the BONE-shaker MARROW-thon.
The ride took place on Sunday, March 2, 2014 in fairly awful weather conditions and saw more than 100 bikes and trikes make the 35-mile journey between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to the Queen’s Hospital in Burton (the two hospitals responsible for her care) before finishing with a family fun day at the Pirelli Stadium (Burton Albion FC).
The BONE-shaker MARROW-thon raised more than £2,000 which was split between Anthony Nolan, Cure Leukaemia and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity. It was such a success, plans are already in place for a repeat in 2015 and riders are already signing up in support.
Katherine’s next challenge was to enter into the world of politics. Feeling forever indebted to the charity Anthony Nolan for finding her a suitable bone marrow match in Germany, Katherine was keen to support the charity’s ‘Roadmap to Recovery’ campaign.
The campaign aims to convince NHS England to review policies so that equal post-transplant care is provided across the NHS rather than different areas receiving different levels of support.
Katherine convinced her local MP Andrew Griffiths to join the fight and together, Katherine and MP Andrew Griffiths have become a valuable resource for Anthony Nolan. Katherine helps provide details of her first-hand experience while Andrew is keen on getting a debate heard in Parliament.
Capes vs Cancer
A league table released by the charity Anthony Nolan in June 2014 spurred Katherine into a new campaign. You can see our interactive map and league table at www.anthonynolan.org/superhero, listing the number of potential bone marrow donors in each area. The constituency of Burton-on-Trent and Uttoxeter was ranked a disappointing 515 out of 650.
Work is still on-going but Katherine has vowed to get Burton into the top 100. She has written to her MP for support as well as to the principal of the local college.
Katherine’s aim is to hold a major recruitment event in the town with an emphasis on recruiting donors from under-represented faith groups as well as from students who are prime candidates for the Anthony Nolan register.
Events, workshops and recruitment sessions involving students at Burton and South Derbyshire College are set to start in September.
Throughout all of this, Katherine has spent a total of 110 days in hospital since April 2013. She has undergone intensive chemotherapy and total body radiotherapy as well as a stem cell transplant.
Katherine is now in remission but continues to take daily medication and is still a regular visitor at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for tests and check-ups.
At Anthony Nolan, we'd like to thank Katherine for all of her amazing support.