"Hello everybody,

I am Jessica, the daughter of a brave and strong woman called Conchi, who since March has been faced with challenge so tough and cruel that nobody should have to go through it.  As I say, my mother was diagnosed on the 11^th of March with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.  Imagine how hard it is to receive such news, when the same morning you had risen out of your bed, calmly, and without knowing that in a few short hours your life would be changed…

Jessica with her mother.

We started straight away with a hard treatment and with an emotional fight that, thanks to her attitude and positivity, has been getting better bit by bit each day.  Everything has been a battle… the chemo, the isolation, 5 long cycles of consolidation, and most importantly the transplant.  It was our only option to rid ourselves of the disease, luckily fate meant that her sister was compatible (not everything in the world is bad) and we have reached this far!

Today, two months have passed since the transplant (they have been very tough) and we are still here, fighting bit by bit to get better.  We know that the fight is long and slow but we know that we will defeat it and in time, the nightmare will be over. 

Above all I want to send a message to everyone who has just been diagnosed and is stricken with fear; to those who like us are at the beginning of their fight; to those who have been fortunate enough to have found the way of this battle victoriously; and to those who never give up or get tired of the fight.  This disease shows the real soul of a person and a family, and lessons are learnt about what is really important in life.  We learn to value the small things, because in them we find true happiness.

Conchi

I am going to share with you the plans of my mother for when she victoriously gets out of this tricky period.  Firstly, she wants to recuperate her life, she wants to do a million things that she has always wanted to do and for various reasons has never done.  She wants to go out, to enjoy the details of life, go out to eat, chat with friends…

And although I am not the one who is ill, I want to tell you about a plan that I have too…, I don’t want to waste the time I have to be with my mother, in so many ways she has been the best mother a child could hope for.  She has shown me love, understanding, bravery, happiness, generosity, and above all she has taught me that you should never give in, because as she says, there is only one life and I want to live it with the bad and the good.

Love to everyone and lots of support to everyone to win the battle against this disease!!"

Jessica