Fundraiser wants to thank donor who saved her life
A BONE marrow transplant recipient whose life was saved by a 16 millionto-one match with a stranger has still not been able to thank the donor who helped her.
Laura James made a remarkable recovery after being diagnosed with acute myloid leukaemia in October 2011 after having found the “perfect match”, which she said was as impossible as “finding your twin”.
Now fully recovered, Laura now works as a receptionist and is completing the final year of her history degree at the Open University, and is starting to fundraise for leukaemia and lymphoma research charity Bloodwise.
She will climb Pen Y Fan this summer and said: “It’s a very strange feeling that someone saved my life but I don’t know who they are and I’ve never spoken to them.”
All she knows about the woman is that she was 49 at the time and was an Australian citizen with no children.
According to Laura, from Cwmdare in the Cynon Valley, it is up to the donor to decide if they are happy to be contacted by the recipient after the procedure.
“I wrote a letter to her but never got a response and part of me thinks that maybe she’s concerned that the procedure didn’t work and so she decided to not know.”
But survivor Laura, now 29, said: “It’s now vital that Bloodwise continue to receive money in order to fund ground-breaking research of blood cancer and get closer and closer to finding a cure.
“I have gone through a lot of transition in my life and am grateful every day to be here after that one person who did that selfless act for me. I never gave up and even after I went through treatment I went through the effort to get back into work and get back on track with my life.”
Laura had been working as a youth worker at the time of diagnosis when doctors mistakenly told her she had glandular fever.
But her mother Sue, a retired nurse, knew something more serious was wrong with her only child and encouraged her to have a blood test done with her GP.
“I thought my life was over. I was sure they had made a mistake. When you hear the word ‘cancer’ you think it’s the end of you. I was given an 80% chance of survival.”
Laura did not have a match partly because she had no siblings.
And after a search in the UK and Europe proved fruitless Laura and her family gave up hope before being stunned to hear of a match, which was followed by a successful procedure.
She said: “I feel really good in myself and I have been very fortunate considering what has happened in the past.
“I see my life from a totally different perspective and see things differently and act differently.
“I have suffered but it has made me stronger and a better person as a result.”
She will climb Pen Y Fan on July 15.
To donate visit www.justgiving. com/fundraising/ Secondchance2