Nicola's Story

Nicola Davidson

running with Ben Brown

In 2012, following a few weeks of feeling unwell and a few trips to the GP, they agreed to give me a blood test. That evening I had a call,asking me to go straight to the hospital. When I arrived, they explained that I was critically ill with AML - a serious form of Leukaemia. I was immediately moved into an isolation room at the Western General, where I was to spend the next 8 weeks, and my first round of chemo started the next morning.  My treatment - a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, lasted for about a year. The treatment was hard physically, but also mentally, so once it was over I needed to recover physically and rebuild myself from an emotional perspective. 

I’d used the Maggies centre in the grounds of the hospital during my treatment but it really came into it’s own when I was discharged from the hospital as a full time patient but still very much in the early stages of my recovery on the journey back to being me. Attending classes at the centre, and having sessions with the wonderful counsellors there, gave me the strength and belief that I could and would get better. 

Once I’d reached this point, my attention turned to my physical state.  I called the team at Balanced, where I had previously taken weekly Pilates classes, to ask for their suggestions as to a suitable class. I realised I had not exercised for two years, was as week as a baby and had lost all confidence in my ability to exercise.   When I spoke to Ben, a Director and Instructor at Balanced, he said that he’d been thinking for some time about providing a class for people recovering from cancer, and he suggested that I should be the first class member. With his unwavering support and encouragement, I gradually regained my strength, fitness and confidence to tackle greater challenges.  This year, for the first time ever, I actually ran the Great North Run - a new milestone.  Thank you Balanced and Maggies!