WHEN TV presenter Laura Boyd was told she had cancer at the age of 28, she asked her GP, ‘Am I going to die?’ “Oh, we’re all going to die dear,” was his glib response.

Thankfully a specialist at Glasgow’s Stobhill Hospital was able to frame her diagnosis of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) in a more positive light and give her the facts she needed to garner strength and move forward onto the tests and treatment that are keeping her alive.

The life expectancy for patients suffering from CML was once only three to seven years.

Now, patients can expect to live a normal life expectancy, thanks to major innovations in drug treatment at specialist centres including the world-renowned, Paul O’Gorman Research Centre in Glasgow.

Next year, Laura, 37, who married her long-term partner Steven Ford, 36, in November last year, will celebrate 10 years of personal and professional triumphs, since she was diagnosed and a life, “full of joy.” A big party is planned.

On May 25 the centre, known affectionately as ‘POG’ will celebrate its own 10-year milestone, since it opened on the Gartnavel site, close to the Beatson.

Laura, 37, who is a well-known face, not only for her TV presenting but as an ambassador and active fundraiser for various cancer charities, was diagnosed in September 2009 in her late 20s, fairly unusual for CML, which affects the blood and bone marrow.

She says: “It’s largely either children or much older people so when I after I had been diagnosed one of the doctors, who didn’t know that much about the type, said ‘are you sure that’s what you’ve got?’ “There are not that many of my age have it.

“Initially when I was diagnosed it was the GP who told me and said, ‘Oh we all die dear’, which wasn’t the best.

“But then I had to go through the process of days of testing and the hospital were much better and I saw a lovely doctor at Stobhill.

“She was very much like, there’s loads that can be done and we will take care of you. And you just need that reassurance. Even if the prognosis isn’t good there are still things that can be done to help. I needed to hear that.

“The bone marrow removal was horrific but then I started on the chemo medication tablets which I take every day.

“It (the cancer) is suppressed. The drugs are forcing it into remission. Some patients come off the drugs and it doesn’t come back.

“For me, I’ve been off drugs and it has come back so just now the cancer levels are really low and the hope is that they will always be low.

“We don’t know because the drugs are so new but they are coming up with new drugs all the time.

“If the drugs stopped working, then ultimately it would be a bone marrow transplant.

“You just take each day as it comes.

“It’s so cliche but it has given me a zest for life that I wouldn’t have had before.

“There are some days where that panic does take over and I think, I’ve got cancer but largely I’m okay. I’ve got so much joy in my life.

“I lost some of my hair for the first time last year. My hair had always been my crowning glory.

“For that to happen at that point, I was quite upset.

“But my hairdresser helped and I got extensions. Obviously working in TV, it is a big deal.

“Other than that I’ve been fine. Next year it will be 10 years since my diagnosis so I’m planning a big party.”

Doctors, researchers and patients are also busy planning a day of events to mark the 10th birthday of the centre, which is run in  partnership with the University of Glasgow.

There is sadness that former director, Professor Tessa Holyoake, who died last year from breast cancer, will not be there to enjoy the party.

The centre is considered world-leading in the treatment of CML, in part due to her work, shifting a once-fatal disease into the realms of a chronic illness.

Laura, herself credits, Professor Holyoake for   ‘saving her life’.

She said: “She was my doctor and she was amazing. I think the world ‘hero’ gets bandied about a lot but she truly was incredible.

“She would tell you it as it is, no holds barred – but on the other hand she was so caring.

“She got me involved in the charity, Friends of Paul O’Gorman and she came along to events that I hosted. I hosted a few for her.

“It was really nice to see this incredible power-house of a woman partying.

“She loved that side of it too.

“I can’t really get over the loss of her. You would email her and she would email right back to reassure you.

“She was brilliant for my parents. It’s a huge loss.”

Laura and patients like her are now treated by Professor’s Holyoake’s successor, Mhairi Copland, director and head of Translational Haematology.

She said: “We’re really looking forward to the day and wanting it to be celebration of what we’ve done so far.

“For CML, which is one of our main interests here, over the last 15 years, treatment has been absolutely revolutionised with the introduction of specific drugs such as Imatonib.

“For patients with CML, who are responding to the drugs, they can have normal life expectancy, which is amazing.

“What other types, the outlook is not quite so rosy. For Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, there are new treatments coming along.

“In the last year, for the first time in 25 years, there have been new drugs approved by the FDA in the United States for the treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

“For CML we are trying to better understand treatment resistance in the lab and possible drugs which will make the cells more sensitive to the drugs like Imatonib.

“I’m a clinical academic so I work half the time in the ward and half the time in the labs.

“What I really enjoy is that I can take the problems that the patients have into the lab and potentially take those solutions back to the patient in the form of clinical trials.

“It’s really rewarding and if you look back over the past 10 years, even small improvements over a long period of time start to make a big difference.”

For more advice and support about cancer contact Maggie’s at www.maggiescentres.org/