Cherie's Story

When I was just one month old I was admitted to hospital with a fever. After many months of anxious waiting for my parents, I was finally diagnosed with a rare blood disease: Beta Thalassaemia Intermedia. It’s a condition found most frequently in people of Mediterranean descent, causing anaemia and other health issues, and requiring regular blood transfusions.

My parents were told to take me home and enjoy what time they had left with me. Children with this disease, they were told, had a life expectancy of just seven years. I was two years old.

I surpassed expectations, much to everyone’s relief, and at eleven I began a monthly regime of transfusions that continues to this day. New Zealand Blood Service found blood donors who were a match to my blood type to donate their red blood cells and I started receiving transfusions -four units each and every month.

My parents taught me that it was fine to let it all out – whether it was crying or hitting a pillow – but that what really mattered is what I did next. Would I give up, or dust myself off and get on with life? Well I’m stubborn, like my parents, and I don’t do Giving Up. Despite my condition, my parents raised me to believe that I could do anything I set my mind to. When I couldn’t do something, I would adapt. This was, and still is, my challenge.

I never thought I would ever find someone to love me, let alone marry me. At the start of my relationship with Terry, I showed him the trolley that held all my medication and equipment and said ‘This is me’. We’ve now been together for 22 years and married for 14 of those. My husband connects the port for my transfusion every night and is my voice when I can’t speak. He knows my hospital number and how to contact my specialist in emergencies.

Over the years my life expectancy has moved from 7, to 20, to 25 then 30. I can tell you, it isn’t fun to have that hanging over you. I will be turning 44 this year. What an awesome experience that will be. I still have blood transfusions once every five weeks, when I receive two to three units of red blood cells.

I have conquered a few health issues – never problems – including a stroke, but I’m able to work teaching 11 to 13 year old students full-time. I’ve found a fulfilling role.

I have a lot to be thankful for and I’m especially grateful to all the people who donate blood. Without you giving the time to donate blood, people like me wouldn’t be alive and able to give back to our community. I can never thank you enough.