My Story

Every 20 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer. 

In 2020 at 32 weeks pregnant my cousin Kelly was diagnosed with a very rare and agressive form of blood cancer; Atypical Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (aCML) This meant that her bone marrow wasnt producing enough healthy blood cells.

Only 1-2% of people with CML go on to develop aCML most of which are elderly males so Kelly's case was extremely rare.

There's no standard treatment for this type of cancer - the main options being long term medication to improve blood cell count, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. 

Due to being pregnant Kelly's treatment options were limited until her baby was born but weekly injections and lots of tablets got her to almost full term. In November 2020 Milly-May was born healthy and happy. This then meant that cancer treatment had to begin as soon as possible and begin looking for a stem cell donor.

The best chance people have of finding a donor is from a sibling or close family member, in Kelly's case none were a suitable match meaning the doctors had to turn to the donor register. Unfortunatley the size of this list is very small meaning that the chance of finding a match was extremely slim. Almost 12 months after diagnosis Kelly found her match and packed her bags for a month long stay in hospital away from her beautiful little girl for her transplant which is given alongside a round of intense chemotherapy.

Despite initial promising results the transplant failed and we were all told that having a second transplant would be fatal. Kelly had been so strong and positive throughout but this was devastating news for Kelly and her husband Dave. 

Unfortunatley in August 2022 Kelly lost her battle leaving behind her beautiful daughter and loving husband at just 42 years old.

Throughout her battle Kelly worked hard to raise awareness on blood cancer and stem cell donation and she appeared on BBC radio stations and in national newspapers sharing her story! She knew first hand how important it is to increase the size of the stem cell donor register.

Therefore my goal is to also raise awareness, encourage people to join the register and save more lives to this horrible disease.

I'll be away from home and my children for 7 days, in rough conditions but that's nothing compared to what people go through in this process!

DKMS are not a big charity but they provide free home kits to anyone wanting to become a donor. These kits cost £40 so my aim is to raise as much money as possible to provide as many kits as i can to increase the number of people on the donor register and therefore save more lives. 

If i can save 1 person by increasing the number of donors available then the trek will be 100% worth it! 

If you would like to order a donor kit please click on the link below

https://www.dkms.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-donor