A mother-of-four who was diagnosed with leukaemia and told she “wouldn’t make it to Christmas” that year unless she started treatment immediately has done a cartwheel every day to celebrate reaching remission. Urban designer Lucy Musgrave, 58, who lives in London, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) – a “very aggressive” type of blood cancer – in September 2021 after experiencing severe exhaustion.
At the time, Lucy was informed by her consultant that if she did not start treatment straight away, she would not survive to see Christmas that year. Lucy, the founding director of research and urban design practice Publica, was given blood transfusions and started intensive chemotherapy days later, spending six months in and out of hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic.
After completing her in-patient treatment in March 2022, she began maintenance chemotherapy and, in November that year, her friends took her to Mexico, where she did 12 cartwheels on the beach – one to “mark every month of survival”. Since January 2023, Lucy has completed a cartwheel every day – including at the Old Bailey, outside St Paul’s Cathedral and on the red carpet at the Baftas – and has joined forces with Leukaemia UK for the group’s new Cartwheel for a Cure campaign to raise funds for lifesaving research.
Lucy, who is now known as the “Cartwheel Queen”, told PA Real Life: “I dived straight into the sea and when I came out, I did 12 cartwheels on the beach (in Mexico) – one for each month of that terrible year. That moment of joy sparked something.
“The survival rates for AML are absolutely devastating, which is why I’m doing all the fundraising. I don’t want anyone, any family, to ever, ever, ever have to go through what we went through.”
According to Leukaemia UK, almost 3,100 people are diagnosed with AML in the UK every year, and nearly 80% of those will not survive beyond five years. Symptoms include fatigue, pale skin, frequent infections, shortness of breath, unexplained weight loss, bruising and bleeding easily and bone pain.
Lucy said she had “mild shingles” – a viral infection – in spring 2021 and felt exhausted. “We went on holiday down to Cornwall, and I literally couldn’t lift my head off the pillow – it was terrible,” she explained.
Lucy, who lives with husband Zad, the founder of Atomized Studios, said she arranged a video call with her GP, who suggested she had “picked up another virus”. However, as her fatigue persisted, she knew something was not right and she booked an appointment with another GP privately.
“I went to see this GP, he took a blood test, and he phoned me the next day and said, ‘Could you go to A&E now, please?’,” Lucy said. “I just thought, ‘Well, thank goodness someone’s taking this seriously. I haven’t got post-viral fatigue’.”
Lucy said she went to University College London Hospital (UCLH), where she struggled to sit upright due to exhaustion, and lay down on an empty hospital bed. After a nurse took a bone marrow biopsy, she was taken to another ward and was told her husband had been invited to the hospital.
“I thought, ‘OK, here we go. I’m going to be told I’ve got cancer and, well, that’s OK. I’ve had this amazing life and I’ve been so lucky’,” Lucy said. “What’s the worst thing they could tell me? They’re going to tell me I’ve got six months to live.”
The consultant informed Lucy on September 9 2021 that she had AML and, if left untreated, she may only have three months to live.
She continued: “The consultant said it’s curable and it was his job to ensure I made it to my 80s or 90s, but if we didn’t start treatment straight away, I wouldn’t make it to Christmas. I never thought it would be less than six months… so I said, ‘Bring it on. When can we start?’ But then I looked to my side and saw my husband looking completely broken. It hit me then that this wasn’t just about me, but this was going to be incredibly difficult and traumatic for my family too, particularly my daughters.”
Surrounded by her “incredible” team of doctors and nurses, Lucy felt confident about her treatment plan and started chemotherapy within days. Although she experienced side effects of mouth sores, nausea and hair loss, Lucy said focusing on “positive energy” and support from loved ones helped her get through the days when she felt “broken”.
“People say this language of ‘fighting cancer’, but with blood cancer, it’s literally in every cell of your body. You can’t fight your own body,” she said.
“I just knew I had this minuscule piece of energy…. and, in my mind, I just kept thinking, if I can hang on to that positive energy and if I can grow it, I can get through this.”
Lucy completed her inpatient treatment in March 2022 and started a year of maintenance chemotherapy, and is now in remission. The “surreal” experience of her shock diagnosis and recovery spurred Lucy to spearhead a fundraising drive – and it all started with 12 cartwheels on holiday in Mexico.
“I’m here because of medical science and the NHS and a lot of love,” she said. “Doctors said at the time that, if I had been diagnosed five years earlier, they wouldn’t have been able to treat me. That’s why I’m cartwheeling – it’s this tiny movement for joy, this tiny bit of positive energy.”
Since January 2023, Lucy has performed a cartwheel every day – wherever she is – and filmed it to celebrate reaching remission, and she has raised more than £28,500 for the Haematology Cancer Care (HCC) unit at UCLH. She said she has cartwheeled at the Old Bailey, in Tube stations and outside St Paul’s Cathedral, and is hoping to cartwheel with the Lionesses and at other institutions such as ballet schools, sports clubs and primary schools across the country.
Having completed her 1,000th cartwheel in June, Lucy has launched a new national campaign with Leukaemia UK called Cartwheel for a Cure, and she hopes to raise as much money as possible with this “movement for joy”.
“I want to spend the next 12 months limbering up the nation and practising our cartwheels, and then on June 30 forevermore, it will be national cartwheeling day and we’re going to raise a lot more money on that day,” she said. Lucy wants to encourage people to get any unusual symptoms checked and said do not be afraid to “ask for help”.
“The sad thing is that every family in the UK is going to be touched in some shape or form by cancer,” she said. “I’ve learned to squeeze every inch and ounce out of life because of this life-threatening disease and now I’m fearless. I’m hoping I’ll be cartwheeling into my 80s.”
To find out more, visit: leukaemiauk.org.uk/cartwheel-for-a-cure, or search @lucy.musgrave or @cartwheelforacure on Instagram. To donate, visit: justgiving.com/campaign/cartwheel-for-a-cure.
