An owner of a popular Albert Dock restaurant has raised £15,000 and counting for cancer charities which helped her during chemotherapy.
Elaine Kinsella and her husband, Peter, raised the extraordinary amount by matching donations from customers in their popular Lunya and Lunyalita restaurants. The funds were split between the charities that supported Mrs Kinsella through her treatment- Leukaemia & Myeloma Research UK, West Lancs and Merseyside Myeloma Support Group and the Liverpool Haematology Patient Support Group.
Mrs Kinsella discovered she had the rare type of blood cancer in January 2021 following a routine blood test. Her GP noticed the abnormality and recommended she begin chemotherapy in February.
READ MORE: 'Hopeful' dad of five becomes first in UK to to receive new cancer 'vaccine'
Talking about the treatment, Mrs Kinsella told the ECHO: “I found the steroids really hard to cope with. I had six rounds of chemotherapy, finishing that in the July.
“I went into remission following that. But in order to get me into a deeper remission they offered me a stem cell transplant, because I’m relatively young to get myeloma when most people are aged 65 plus.
“I went to Clatterbridge cancer centre to have a very intense, high dose of chemotherapy, where you’re in hospital for four weeks without any visitors.
“It was tough but I came out of hospital in November and the cancer was slowly getting better and better.”
Myeloma is an incurable disease, but at the same time it does not have the same awareness as other blood cancers like leukaemia or lymphoma. There are treatments available, such as the stem cell transplant given to Mrs Kinsella, but the disease has a tendency to relapse.
“At the moment I’m not on any treatment at all. The doctors are just monitoring me really, really carefully now," she said.
“It’s a blood cancer that I’d not heard of before. Myeloma is one that not many people know about so we really wanted to raise the awareness of it and give some money to research.”
“One of the things that really helped me through my diagnosis was talking to other people who had a similar diagnosis and had been through similar treatment regimens as well.
“Just being able to speak to them about what to expect, and ask questions. There was one particular lady in one of the groups who I still ring regularly, and we support each other.
“There was also a counsellor from the Liverpool Haematology support group who used to call me every week and ask how I was getting on. When I was really poorly that really helped me get through it.
“It’s been really helpful to hear about things that might not even have occurred to me. But I think the main thing is having people to speak to who’re aware of what you’re going through.”
Her husband, Peter, told the ECHO: “We were really overwhelmed by the response. We know we’ve got a fantastic customer base but it wasn’t just the support, we had so many people leaving really lovely notes and messages of support at the end of their meal for us as well.
“Sometimes they’d tell us about their own experiences with cancer. So it became a very personal thing which is why we’ve decided to carry the fundraising as well.
“What we plan to do now is to change the charity every three months because we realised that, though we were badly affected during the pandemic, essential charities were hugely affected in fundraising. All those social events they do to make money - dinners and golf meets etc – couldn’t happen.
“We ask our customers what charities are close to their hearts, and we get loads of suggestions of charities that don’t get much publicity but do fantastic local work. Places that make a real difference to the area, like Bloom the lung cancer charity or Liverpool People First.”
Mrs Kinsella will continue fundraising in the future, though this time for Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool, where she received her essential chemotherapy treatment.
She said: “In the meantime, I’ll be resting, walking Churros our 18-month-old Cockapoo and enjoying time with my family and grandson, Luke, who was born in June last year."
