Penarth | Archive | 2005 | February | 24

Race for Jamie

From the Penarth Times, first published Thursday 24th Feb 2005.

THE Adamsons lost Jamie to Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in January 2004.

He was only five years old, but the brave toddler had battled the disease for more than half of his young life.

Parents Paul and Nicola and older brother Sam are refusing to allow Jamie's struggle to have been in vain.

Backed by the Penarth Times, they have set up the Jamie Adamson Memorial Fund, to raise money to help fund research of the disease - which is the biggest childhood killer disease in the UK.

Kick-starting the cash collection by running the London Marathon, Paul wants everyone in the Vale of Glamorgan to dig deep.

He said: 'Together with my best friend, Ceri Binding, I'll be taking on the marathon on April 17. We've started training and we're aiming to finish the race in just over four hours.'

Jamie was first diagnosed with leukaemia three years ago. Then just three years old, he accepted the three-year course of chemotherapy and the resulting, often painful, treatment that followed - including bone marrow biopsies, lumbar punctures and many injections and intravenous treatments.

He suffered sickness, hair loss and joint pain as the doctors fought alongside him to conquer the disease.

Yet time and time again, the small child astounded his family and the teams of doctors and nurses who got to know him so well.

Sadly at the end of October 2003, Jamie's health deteriorated. Paul and Nicola moved into parents' accommodation in Llandough hospital, provided and maintained by children's charity LATCH.

On January 13, 2004, he contracted meningitis as a result of the chemotherapy and slipped into a coma. He was taken back to Llandough where he died on January 20, 2004.