For a while we had planned to interview my friend Tom Preston for the section of Memories where we talk to survivors. He’s an old buddy of mine back in Canada and he discovered he had leukemia when he went to give blood at the age of 18. I was with him at the time and when they tested his blood at the donors clinic they said straight away he had to go and see a doctor. A week or so later they were preparing him for treatment. I interviewed Tom for the book the other day and he talked about how much his mother helped him when he was ill… including driving him to the ward to have his sperm frozen. I’m not sure how many people realise this, but chemotherapy and radiation therapy can make a man sterile. I don’t know if it’s true for women as well – if you can say then please post a comment. Anyway, Tom’s ‘little soldiers’ had to be frozen in liquid nitrogen.

Later in life this has affected him and his wife a great deal. Once he was married and wanted to start a family the burden shifted to his wife as they needed IVF in order for her to become pregnant. All in all Tom’s story is one of miracles to say the least. I don’t want to give too much away as I’m still working on the text for this but I think when you see the book it will make for a touch of humour as well as the more serious side of what chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant mean.