Pete's story
My name is Peter McCleave. I’m a 43-year-old husband, father to two amazing boys, and a man who is searching for a potential lifesaver.
Just four years ago, I was fit and healthy, having just completed the notoriously challenging Ironman Triathlon. Despite proving my peak physical condition in the race, I fell ill after the competition and what doctors initially thought was a simple bout of pneumonia eventually led to a life-altering diagnosis of myeloma.
In the time since my initial diagnosis I’ve been through invasive treatment including several rounds of chemo, but ultimately I found myself at a point where it was no longer a matter of what I could do or withstand; I am relying on a stranger to help save my life. Without a matching blood stem cell donor, doctors have given me less than seven years to live.
Upon learning the news that I would need an unrelated donor I teamed up with DKMS to help me with my search and to encourage the public to join the registry. Last September we created a campaign to register 10,000 new blood stem cell donor in the UK and not too long after we had passed the half way milestone.
My family has been so supportive throughout my battle and my son Max desperately wanted to help my campaign, so he wrote a letter urging anyone who was eligible to be a donor to register and go on standby to potentially save the life of someone like me. I was chuffed when I read Max’s letter, I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me.
I hate the fact that my sons have had to be exposed to this. I tried my best to downplay what was happening to me, but it was clear that their understanding of my situation was much greater than I appreciated and Max’s letter was his way of approaching and grappling with it.
I have had such mixed feeling since Max wrote his letter. Pride. Love. Sadness. When I read it I was so full of admiration and appreciation. I had not realised just how much he had really been taking on board and, ultimately, finding ways to cope with it too. Thanks to Max’s letter we appeared on breakfast TV and radio shows.
We were blown away by the media coverage we received, which led to over 10,000 people requesting a home swab kit in a single 24 hour period. This is the second highest figure of requests in such a short period of time in DKMS’s history and the requests are still coming in!
Over £20,000 was also donated to DKMS to help cover the £40 cost of registering each new donor – showing that regardless of their eligibility or personal desire to become a donor, people were helping in whatever way they could.
With the success of this public appeal, we smashed our challenge to register 10,000 new donors. All in all, since working with DKMS, I have helped them to raise over £80,000 and we have registered well over 50,000. I personally know of 16 people who have already been identified as potential matches for people in urgent need – including a friend of mine!
I count myself very lucky to have a loving family. My wife Jenny has managed to bear the additional burden placed on our family by this disease with extraordinary grace and perseverance. My sons Max and Seb, despite their own worries for their father, have found ways to inspire not only the public, but also inspire me to continue to fight every day. I hope that I find my lifesaver, so I can get a second chance of life and a chance to care for them the way they have cared for me.
Peter McCleave