Wendy and I met I'm 1996 when we were both diagnosed with leukaemia two days apart in the same doctors’ rooms. We share a very similar journey with both of us needing multiple lots of blood and blood products to help us survive whilst undergoing intensive chemotherapy.

Without a doubt, neither of us would be alive today had those lifesaving blood products not been available to us. Our story is not one of an immediate lifesaving need occurring from a tragic accident but one that often flies below the radar because of the disease pathway. Most patients like us who have battled and survived have required those products multiple times over the course of our journey to beat out disease.

I am not sure if our situation would necessarily have as big of an impact with the intended audience but we both survived, grew up, travelled, got married and are our raising our own families ... with our own children almost ready to fly the nest.

None of those things would have happened without those products and we are eternally grateful to the generosity of donors who have put others before themselves to help save lives.