A married mother who won a traumatic three-year battle with leukaemia is backing a charity breakfast campaign by a restaurant.
Brave Delyth Bolton, 44, who beat the disease as a child and went on to have a family, is supporting Frankie and Benny’s at Eagles Meadow in Wrexham in their efforts to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
The Italian-American restaurant has already raised over £1,000 through the culinary charity drive, and has a target of £4,000 for the year.
Mum of one Delyth, and her husband, Andrew, have a 12-year-old daughter called Freya.
But things looked bleak when Delyth was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia at the tender age of three.
Delyth recalled: “The side effects were terrible. There was losing my hair, throwing up, ulcers, that sort of thing.
“It really affected the immune system. I remember other children having mumps and I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near them, and play with them, so there was a lot of isolation at the time when I was going through a lot of the treatment.
“I had chemotherapy and radiotherapy and numerous drugs. I didn’t know any different. At that age you don’t realise.”
Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research is dedicated to improving the lives of patients with all types of blood cancer, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
Peter Cross, the Manager of Frankie and Benny’s at Eagles Meadow, said: “Every year Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research prevent more and more people from dying of blood cancer and their researchers are working as hard as they can to stop people developing this horrible disease in the first place.
“They also work to improve the lives of patients already suffering from cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma because they believe everyone should be able to live their life to the full.”
Delyth, whose dedicated mum Mary raised more than £300,000 for the cause over the years with a group of pals, believes that the cash raised is making a huge difference.
She said: “I’m still alive because people have put money into research. People are donating phenomenal amounts these days.
“I think what they’re doing at Frankie and Benny’s at Eagles Meadow is fantastic.
“This money does make a real difference. Everything helps with leukaemia research and they’re always doing clinical trials and there are new advances with the treatments.
“Over the years it’s progressed massively because 25 years ago not many people would have come through at the other end.
“I was one of the lucky ones, because now days the treatment can target the damaged cells.
“When I was going through my treatment it was targeting all of my cells.
“I didn’t know if I could have kids because of the treatment. It was a little bit of a miracle I had Freya and I was absolutely thrilled.
“They’d never had anyone who had recovered who had gone on to have children because in those days the survival rate was so low. The treatment has improved a lot since then. It’s a cause that’s really close to my heart. I had to have regular checks for years and I was only fully discharged two years ago.
Peter added: “Delyth’s story illustrated the importance of the cause. I’ve known her for years through the restaurants I’ve worked for in Wrexham, and it’s lovely to see her now bring the families in, and it’s absolutely marvellous.
“It just shows that there is hope for everybody. It’s a very important cause which is close to everybody’s heart.
“All of the money people spend at the charity breakfast gets donated straight away to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
“People have supported it very enthusiastically, and because the money is being donated to charity they’ll do things like get an extra little side order.
“The money is going towards research and hopefully we can find a cure not too far down the road.”
