‘OAP worker in lift before Hatton raid’
Jo her doctors had been given permission to give her a new drug, Brentuximab Vedotin, on compassionate grounds.
It stopped the cancer progressing so well the NHS agreed to fund it for other patients, including 10 who went into remission and had life-saving stem cell transplants.
Another drug Bendamustine, which is still not widely available on the
NHS, sent Jo’s cancer into remission and she was able to have a transplant.
Jo says: “A year before my transplant we checked the donor register and there were no matches. By the time I was ready there was one.
“We were terrified he might not want to go through with it. We couldn’t speak to him directly but, thanks to Anthony Nolan, everything fell into place.” Jo spent a month in hospital during the London Olympics in 2012 as her body was blasted with chemotherapy to wipe away the cancer, her bone marrow and her white blood cells to try to stop her body rejecting the transplant.
Pete, a business consultant, says: “The worst moments were sitting at home after leaving Jo at the hospital, eating dinner at 11pm and thinking, ‘If the transplant doesn’t work, this is what’s left. Our bed felt so empty. There were a lot of tears.”
The nightmare nearly became a reality...
Jo says: “You are pushed very close to death during the transplant. You are being sustained by blood transfusions. There was one night where I felt something give way in my body. I hit rock bottom. I JO ON THEIR GRATITUDE TO THE MYSTERY DONOR knew if I chose, I could pass away quietly. But underneath that was another thought, ‘No, push through one more night.’ I had to keep trying for Pete and my parents. The next day my blood counts started to rise ever so slowly.”
Recovery was tough. Jo suffered graft versus host disease, which can be fatal, as her body struggled to accept the transplant.
It was 12 months before she was able to return to regular work for the first time in five years. She took up track cycling and, after doctors gave her the all-clear, she ran the London Marathon on her 33rd birthday last April.
The couple also discovered it might be possible for them to have a baby, despite Jo being left infertile by chemotherapy, as her womb was undamaged. They used Pete’s sperm and a donor egg but were left with just one embryo to implant.
Jo says: “One of our friends said they thought it would work because we do pretty well when the odds are against us.
“After years of having no future to plan for, we’re planning how to raise our daughter. She is the best gift – the gift of love we thought we’d never have.”
■ Find out more about the Anthony Nolan charity at www.anthony
nolan.org GIFT Overjoyed at their impending parenthood ALLEGATION Michael Seed AN elderly workman was seen in the lift at Hatton Garden safe deposit a day before raiders used it to get to the vault, a court heard.
Katya Lewis saw an “old man in his 60s” with heavy tools when the lift arrived.
Her statement was read at the trial of Michael Seed, 58, allegedly raider “Basil” who wore a wig and mask.
She said: “I thought, ‘Wow, he’s doing well to still be working at his age. Someone must’ve helped him to get his tools in’.”
Woolwich crown court heard five of the six men at the heist, over Easter 2015, have been convicted.
Seed, of Islington, North London, denies conspiracy to commit burglary and to transfer criminal property.
The trial continues in South East London.
We feel so lucky to be planning for a future. We owe him everything