Tina's story

Tina's story, as told by her husband, David.

My wife Tina was diagnosed with myeloma in summer 2012.  The diagnosis was fortuitous.  Our GP had noted an anomalous result in a blood sample taken a few years earlier and wondered if it was due to an infection acquired on holiday in Southeast Asia.  The GP continued to monitor samples every year, which led to the myeloma diagnosis.  At the time, she was told her life expectancy was probably two years, five at the outside; as a Christian she accepted that her life was in God's hands.  And she refused to speak of a "Battle with cancer" or to use the word "Fighting".   

Tina was put on one of the trial protocols and in 2014 received a full stem-cell transplant; and with grim humour she recounted that the form of consent said the most likely outcome was --- death.  So, she spent time in isolation in Yarty Ward.  She lived, although an infection caught when we were on holiday in New Zealand put her close to death --- three worrying days in a small hospital on South Island.  Tina knew that she was vulnerable but chose to live life to the full.  And she was very happy that her experiences had contributed to future treatment regimes for myeloma.  Cycling down the Danube, and round the Loire Chateaux, seeing the Northern Lights off Norway, all long after those five years.  Overseas travel ceased on her 70th birthday, by which time she had discovered the joys of an e-bike, riding about 4000 miles a year in the UK.  

Throughout she had a discipline of regular visits to consultants in Yarty, extremely grateful for the ELF presence in the waiting room, and the books (she was a voracious reader). And of course, she had a cocktail of medicines --- she joked about the "Smartie challenge" of taking a handful of tablets at one mouthful. The ELF drivers were wonderful; collecting her for treatment and delivering her home again (though she had frequently cycled to the hospital, such was her determination). 

In December 2025, just before our Golden Wedding anniversary, she received a diagnosis of a secondary blood cancer, MDS, and was told that this was terminal.  That didn't stop her ---- she kept cycling and maintained her vocation as a lay preacher in church.  But she had to spend time in isolation in Yarty and was grateful for the facilities provided by ELF, including a few days in the family suite. After the day-care patients had gone, she often crept to the ELF bookcase for reading matter.  One Friday in May 2026, she visited her hairdresser and went to Killerton House to see the display.  The next day she welcomed our best man and his wife to coffee; then she recognised that her body was getting weaker, and she died peacefully in her sleep.  

And now ...  

Over ten years ago one of Tina's relatives living in Exeter took an ELF knitted duck on a sailing trip from South America to Antarctica, the Falklands and back to South America, and posted Facebook pictures of the journey of "Artemis".  She suggested that the two of us could have further adventures along with knitted ducks --- the ELF drivers managed to find two more for us! Selected pictures are visible on Facebook at Puddlehopper and Waddlesworth, ELF knitted ducks adventuring. 

Picture captions: "A lady who loved magnolias" and "The cyclist outside the chateau at Azay-le-Rideau" and "Two ELF knitted ducks, adventuring"