Sign up to give others ‘second chance at life’
A CANCER patient is urging people to register as a stem cell donor to give others a “second chance at life”.
Alice Hanagan was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in December 2019. Doctors say a stem cell donation is her best chance of survival.
The 33-year-old, from Melton, had four rounds of chemotherapy in 2020, isolated in a room by herself for 148 days, before going into remission.
But, six months later she was told the AML had returned. She is now having more chemotherapy.
There is no stem cell match within her family or, currently, on the stem cell donor register.
Ms Hanagan is working with blood cancer charity DKMS to encourage people to register as a donor, following a decline in the number of people signing up during the pandemic.
She said: “You are giving people a second chance at life. You question your own mortality anyway when you have been diagnosed with cancer because you know what the outcome could be, and this is giving people hope.
“It’s four to five hours of your time, and could give someone in my position or a similar position, 20, 30, 40 years more of life.
“It is giving people that chance to really beat cancer. New mums can actually donate their placentas, but no-one knows about it.”
The stem cell donor registration process begins with a short online form, followed by a swab kit sent to the applicant’s home.
Once that is returned the person will be told if they are a viable donor within six weeks.
DKMS believes the increased nervousness about visiting hospitals during the pandemic has meant fewer donor registrations.
Reshna Radiven, head of communications and engagement at DKMS, said: “There is a 20 per cent drop in the number of people who are registering when looking at fig
WOMAN WITH LEUKAEMIA HIGHLIGHTS DONOR LIST
ures year on year and, unfortunately, this year we have seen quite a dramatic drop again.
“Just in March alone we have only registered about 20 per cent of the people we would want to register, and we fear that that is going to continue.
“So we could end up in a situation where we have only registered half of the people we would expect to register in a given year.”
Cancer Research UK said 40,000 fewer people started cancer treatment across the UK last year, driven by a drop in the number of people who were diagnosed in 2020.
DKMS expects a surge in blood cancer diagnoses and increased demand for blood stem cell donors when the country returns to something closer to normality.
Ms Radiven said: “The process itself is like giving blood for 90 per cent of donors.
“There is a small chance that you may be asked to undergo a bone marrow donation, which would require you to go under general anaesthetic and have your bone marrow removed via your hip bone, but in 90 per cent of cases you go in, you are in the hospital for half a day.
“Males, particularly those under the age of 31, make the best donors so we would like to actively encourage all young men who are in good health to come forward and register as potential donors.”