‘donating bone marrow was painful, but it’s so rewarding i’d do it all again tomorrow’

LAST month, a letter dropped on to Robert Jones’ doormat containing just about the best possible news.

It revealed the person he had donated bone marrow to was doing very well, two years on from a life-saving blood stem cell transplant.

The Pontypridd hooker doesn’t know much about the recipient, other than he’s a 24-year-old man from Ireland.

But with two years having passed, that person will now receive details of his donor and can get in touch with him and meet up if he so wishes.

It’s a meeting Jones would love to see take place.

He has decided to talk about what he did and the happy outcome in order to encourage more people to join the donor list.

So how did it all come about?

“I have given blood for about 10, 12 years now,” he explained.

“Then about four years ago, the Welsh Blood Service just asked me if I would mind going on the bone marrow donor list.

“I lost my grandfather, Howard, to leukaemia six years ago. So as soon as they said it could benefit people who suffer with blood cancer, I couldn’t say no, really.

“I joined the register and they just took an extra sample of blood to test.

“I didn’t expect to hear anything, but within a year and a half, Welsh Blood contacted me to say they had a potential match. I was a bit shellshocked really.

“So I went down and had a discussion with them. I didn’t know anything about who I was going to be donating to at that point.

“I went for a medical, a full body MoT to make sure I was fit enough.”

With that box ticked, it was then a question of deciding which procedure to go for.

“They give you two options,” he explained.

“Either a stem cell transplant, where you are hooked up to a machine for 12 hours, or taking the bone marrow, which involves drilling into your hip bone.

“I went for the drilling one.

“In simple terms, the stem cell is quantity over quality, whereas the bone marrow is quality over quantity.

“When I had my meetings with Welsh Blood to make my choice, they said it was a 22-year-old young boy from Ireland who had leukaemia.

“At the time, my brother was 23, 24 and I just thought, ‘Imagine that was my brother.’

“The only thing I could think of was imagine the shoe was on the other foot and it was one of my family members or friends suffering.

“Plus the idea of being hooked up to a machine for 12 hours straight would have skulled me to death!

“So I went for the bone marrow option. It was more likely to be helpful and useful.”

That was in January 2018. When you hear exactly what the procedure involved, you have nothing but admiration for Jones.

“They drill straight into your hip bones to the core and then they withdraw your whole bone marrow,” he said.

“There were six drill holes right in the bottom of my back. It depends on the individual, the amount of marrow they take.

“If there’s enough to take, they keep taking it, really. The nurse said they took a hell of lot more from me than a normal person, possibly because I am so big!

“The operation lasted about three