Eileen Kibbler of Sutton Coldfield is raising money for Heartlands Hospital Charity to raise money to support patients on Ward 19, the dedicated cancer care ward at the hospital.

The inspiration for Eileen’s fundraising came following her treatment for Multiple Myeloma, a rare form of bone marrow cancer. Eileen was diagnosed following a routine check-up at her GP early in 2017. Eileen said: “My GP may well have saved my life by encouraging me to have the check-up. I had thought I was a fit woman, but it turned out that high cholesterol was the least of my problems!”

Since January, Eileen has been treated across QEHB and Heartlands Hospital, as well as twice-weekly trips to Good Hope Hospital for a five month period. After this, she received a high intensity stem cell bone marrow transplant on Ward 19 in August.

Speaking of her lengthy period of treatment, Eileen said: “It was a very difficult time; I had a number of unpleasant symptoms associated with my illness. My bones had weakened to the extent that I broke my pelvis whilst climbing onto a bed for a scan.

“It had a big impact on my family too, my son who is in his twenties put his career on hold in order to look after me, for which I’ll be forever grateful. There is a great deal of isolation that comes with a bone marrow transplant, both physical and mental and my family were there to support me through it.”

Recently, Eileen has received the fantastic news that her treatment was successful and she is now hoping for a lengthy period of remission. She has decided to dedicate her time to fundraising for Ward 19.

Eileen is herself a former nurse and public heath manager, having worked at Heartlands, QEHB and City and Sandwell Hospitals before going on to be Director of Clinical Services. She is putting her skills and knowledge to amazing use to raise funds to improve access to transplant services across the city.

She said: “I am not yet fit enough to do triathlons or the sort of extreme challenges that I used to really enjoy in the past. Instead, I am going to be donating my time to the busy doctors and nurses to develop a new model of care for community transplant patients.”

Eileen’s determination to change the way that patients receive bone marrow transplants came from her own experience. It is possible to receive bone marrow transplants as an outpatient, but Eileen lives too far from Heartlands Hospital for this to be realistic.

The trips that Eileen had to make to Good Hope Hospital were challenging when she was unwell. Patients receiving bone marrow transplants are susceptible to illness and infection, and Eileen believes that it is important to keep patients away from the hospital as much as possible.

Lead doctors and nurses at Heartlands Hospital want to develop an outpatient transplant service and are fundraising in their own time to raise over £2 million. The aim of this project is to give the patient control over their treatment and keep them away from hospital as much as possible, keeping the treatment local to the patient.
If the team achieve this goal and the new service becomes a reality, then the service could well be the first of its kind in the UK.

Eileen wants to support this work by raising awareness of blood cancer and fundraising so that more people can be treated quicker and without the lengthy periods of isolation in hospital that Eileen experienced.
Eileen paid tribute to the doctors and nurses across the hospitals, saying: “All of the doctors, nurses and support staff have been truly marvellous during my lengthy period of isolation and helped me deal with the side effects of the treatment expertly.

“In particular, I would like to thank my Consultant Bhuvan Kishore who has been absolutely brilliant throughout my treatment. The level of kindness and compassion of the staff shown to me and my family was truly humbling to receive.”

Alongside the work that she is doing with doctors and nurses at Heartlands Hospital, Eileen wants to make people more aware of their own health, saying: “There was nothing to indicate that I was unwell. I had a bad ankle, but I thought it was just that and nothing worse.”

“I want to encourage everyone, no matter how young or how healthy, to make sure that they get their health regularly checked through their GP.”

Fundraising Manager at Heartlands Hospital Charity, Sian Averill, said: “Eileen is an amazing fundraiser. She has had a tough year but is now helping to raise money and improve services for patients across Birmingham and beyond.

“She is an inspiration to us all and I look forward to working alongside her as the plans develop to set up a community transplant service.”

Before her treatment began, Eileen was just about to begin work as a nurse educator at the University of Birmingham and hopes to return there to work in the future. “I am determined to return to a level of fitness where I am able to teach future nurses the skills that they will need for their career.”

To support Eileen’s fundraising please visit justgiving.com/ek1 or to learn more about Heartlands Hospital Charity’s support of Ward 19, visit heft.org.uk/ward19

If you’d like more information about how Heartlands Hospital Charity supports patients, please go to www.heartlandshospital.org.uk or call 0121 371 4852.

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