From the Bishop of Portsmouth

God certainly moves in mysterious ways! I’m afraid I am writing to you with a bombshell, namely that I am going to have to have another bone-marrow transplant.

Everything was going swimmingly well, until ten days ago, when the doctors noticed that my blood counts had fallen. Just to be on the safe side, I had a bone-marrow biopsy, which revealed that the disease has returned, slowly, not invasively. But the doctors have been very firm that it is worth another try (I had no idea there were such options, but evidently there are), and this time the process looks like being shorter.

At the moment, I’m not sure what the programme is going to look like in detail, but the hope is that they will keep me going, if they have to, over the next month, during which time I have been told to do what I am able to do, and live as normal a life as I can, including seeing people here. That should take me past the ordinations, by which time they will have everything ready for my treatment, in early July.

Treatment will probably consist of a course of chemotherapy, using a new ‘state of the art’ drug that has a reputation for ‘shearing’ the leukaemic cells from the bone-marrow. Some time around mid-July, I will have another bone-marrow transplant, hopefully from the same donor, but possibly from another. Because I ‘grafted’ so well last time, this side of things is not quite so critical as before. I will then come home, and return to hospital for short spells as before, including when they will give me a large extra ‘top-up’ from the donor, to stimulate my immune-system.

The doctors are obviously keen to proceed along these lines, and they would not be doing so unless they believed there was a chance of getting through. The strong chemotherapy drug looks like being more effective than last time. All being well, we should be looking at the same timescale as before – getting slowly back five months after the transplant, which should be around Christmas. The last thing the doctor told me when he broke the news to me was, ‘you’re very fit, and there are lots of things we can do’. So when you pray for me through this third phase of the illness, you have a positive context in which to do so!

There have been many occasions when I have wished that things had worked out differently, in all sorts of ways. Quite what this illness is all about is beyond me. But I am not going to let it defeat me! I am a tough old bird, and I have come through a lot. As Lesslie Newbigin remarked years ago, ‘there is a faith that accepts and a faith that rebels, and they belong together.’ Your love, prayers and support mean more to me than I can put into words – and I know that I speak for Sarah and the rest of the family as well.

+Kenneth