Fight for Optimal Health Never Ending
Tuesday, June 29th, 2004From the Waverely Leader: June 29, 2004
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CHRISTINE Griffiths was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia 16 years ago.The news came as a complete shock, she said.
After extensive chemotherapy treatment and a bone marrow transplant, Ms Griffiths began a long road to recovery. The major recovery phase took about one year, but the fight for optimal health is never ending, she said. “There have been many hiccups on the way, but I am still alive,” she said.
Ms Griffiths lives and works as a nurse at the Bone Marrow Donor Institute Accommodation Centre in North Melbourne. The institute supports people receiving treatment for bone marrow transplants and associated cancers with accommodation and care. It is currently fundraising with the help of the institute’s Waverley branch. The branch has arranged proceeds from the Waverley Theatre’s next production, Same Time Next Year, to go to the institute.
Two six-day trips to Canberra in September and October organised by the branch will also help raise funds for the institute. The cost of the trip is from $625 a person, twin share. When Ms Griffiths was diagnosed with leukemia she was a residential college nurse and spent most of her recovery time living at a La Trobe University College.
“It was very difficult, as I was sharing with a person who was doing a masters degree,” she said.
“I was looking after myself and because of this I spent most of the first year after the transplant in hospital.”
Despite the difficult times, Ms Griffiths now enjoys sport and recently carried the Olympic torch when it came to Melbourne as part of its global tour before the Athens Olympics.
Since fighting the illness, Ms Griffiths has also become a track athlete and race walker for the World Transplant Games.
This year she plans to work as a volunteer nurse at the Athens Olympics for the equestrian event.