06/09/2026
❤️ MY AML JOURNEY — PART 1 OF 8: “YOU HAVE LEUKAEMIA”
Over the next few months, I’m going to share something very personal here on our Plassey social media pages, and very different from our usual run of photos of the park, pitches and facilities.
My journey through Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) — from diagnosis, chemotherapy and ICU, through to stem-cell transplant and recovery… and now training for the 2027 London Marathon 🏃♂️ and is all done with two main aims of
🌟raising donations for The Christie Hospital that treated me
🌟raising awareness of what AML is and other blood cancers.
Some of the photographs I’ll be sharing are very personal and some of the moments when I looked and felt at my worst.
I’ve thought carefully about sharing them, but if I’m going to tell my story, I want to tell the whole story. Warts and all, as they say!!
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FEBRUARY 2025 - BEFORE MY AML DIAGNOSIS
In the two months before my trip to Wrexham A&E in April last year, I seemed to be plagued by one illness after another. This was very unusual for me as I was normally the last person to catch a cold or flu, and even when I did, I’d usually have very minor symptoms.
It started with a mouth ulcer in the roof of my mouth. It made eating and drinking really uncomfortable and, unusually, lasted around three weeks before it finally began to heal.
As soon as that disappeared, I developed painful gum infections — first on one side and then around my wisdom tooth on the other. The pain made sleeping difficult and, after a few weeks, I developed a nasty cough and breathlessness. Looking back on it now, this was the start of pneumonia that was developing deep in my lungs.
After visits to the dentist and a dose of antibiotics, the chest problems subsided and the decision was made to remove the wisdom tooth, hopefully solving the problem.
Did it?
No.
After the tooth was removed, I developed dry socket — leaving the bone and nerves exposed. This was incredibly painful 24/7, and even the strongest over-the-counter painkillers were not making much difference.
Then the infection seemed to spread to my chest again. Pneumonia was coming back with vengeance.
I went back to the dentist, but they didn’t want to prescribe any more antibiotics.
By this point, my body was shattered. I was barely sleeping because of the pain and I was utterly exhausted. I remember going back to Sarah and saying:
“What the hell is wrong with me?… I am NEVER this ill.”
And then came the tears. I was fed up. Knackered. And I didn’t know what to do.
The following morning, I woke with a pain on the right side of my chest. Something wasn’t right and I knew I needed to see a doctor.
I managed to get an emergency appointment and, after being examined, was told to go straight to Wrexham A&E to be checked out.
WREXHAM A&E
A&E was incredibly busy that day, with the usual huge mixture of people needing emergency care. Armed with my handwritten note from my doctor, I was thankfully seen within a couple of hours.
My bloods were taken by a lovely doctor called Sophia, who was incredibly kind and compassionate towards me. At that point, I had absolutely no idea what was coming.
Then the blood results came back and I was called into a room to see Dr Sophia. Very calmly, she said
“You have leukaemia.”
Wow. She asked me to bring Sarah in because the haematologist wanted to speak to both of us. So there we both were, Dr Sophia and the haematologist, squeezed into this tiny room. The haematologist explained:
“Your bloods show that you have AML — Acute Myeloid Leukaemia — and we need to get you to a specialist hospital.”
My head was spinning.
“What is AML?”
I distinctly remember looking at Dr Sophia - her eyes seemed to say everything. There was a sadness in them and the only way I can describe what I thought they were saying was “You’re going to go through hell with this.”
Sarah and I looked at each other and gently sobbed.
My world was crashing in.
My head was spinning.
I just felt helpless.
Utterly helpless.
NEXT — PART 2: THE PROGNOSIS & ICU
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🩸 SO WHAT ACTUALLY IS AML?
AML stands for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. It’s an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Our bone marrow normally produces the blood cells our bodies need. With AML, abnormal immature blood cells multiply rapidly and interfere with the production of healthy blood cells.
The word “acute” is important.
AML can develop and progress very quickly, so once it is suspected or diagnosed, things can start moving frighteningly fast.
Before this happened to me, I knew very little about AML — or leukaemia generally.
I certainly didn’t expect that a stubborn mouth ulcer, repeated infections and feeling completely exhausted would eventually lead to somebody telling me “You have leukaemia.”
And that was only the beginning.
What happened over the following days would take me from Wrexham A&E, to specialist cancer care at The Christie, being given my prognosis and then becoming critically ill in ICU, and next month I will write about what that entailed.
🎥 Alongside each of these eight instalments, I’ll also share a short video showing how my London Marathon training is progressing today.
From a hospital bed to hopefully crossing that finish line over 26.2 miles.
That’s the goal. ❤️
💙 If you’re able to donate, no matter how big or small, I’d be incredibly grateful. Every donation helps The Christie Charity fund pioneering research, develop better treatments and cancer-beating drugs, and continue providing world-class care to patients and their families.
🔗 Please support my fundraising here:
https://2027tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/john-brookshaw
And if you can’t donate, please consider sharing my story. Raising awareness is a huge part of why I’m doing this.
Thank you for reading this.
John Brookshaw
Owner & MD
The Plassey
