‘Apart from this illness, he has so much life in him...’
Mike Wignell is desperate for a stem cell donor which will give him a chance against the leukaemia he has been diagnosed with. Lydia Stephens reports
A RECENTLY retired club DJ desperately needs a stem cell donor after being diagnosed with cancer.
Mike Wignell, 68, was diagnosed with leukaemia in July 2019 just a few weeks after retiring from his 33-year career playing the pubs and clubs of Wrexham.
He had visited his local A&E with an unrelated issue and while there underwent a blood test. Mike’s GP pursued more tests believing something “wasn’t right”, but nobody knew at this stage how serious Mike’s condition was.
Although he’d experienced fatigue and aching joints, he had put it down to the recent handyman work he had been doing.
The long-time motorbike enthusiast had just finished building his own garage where he planned to spend his retirement fixing up old bikes for pleasure.
Further tests revealed that Mike had a condition known as Myelodysplasia, a precursor to leukaemia.
“His consultant called and ordered him to go to Manchester’s Christie Hospital right away,” said Mike’s wife Alison Wignell.
“Treatment started almost immediately,” Alison added. She spent six weeks sleeping by Mike’s bedside in the Christie Hospital.
“He went through two lots of chemo. The first lot took the cancer away, but it came back. The next round cleared Mike’s cancer, only for it to return again for a second time.”
He was treated for the type of blood cancer, Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, with chemotherapy and the plan was for Mike to have a stem cell transplant from a healthy donor.
New, healthy, stem cells would be given to Mike through his bloodstream to grow and create more healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
“We didn’t know much about anything at that stage,” Alison said, referring to stem cell donation. “There was no matching donor in Mike’s family, but the consultant was confident he had a good chance of finding an unrelated match on the register.”
Unfortunately Mike was found to have a rare tissue type, and as a result there was no match for him on the register.
Describing how she felt when she heard the news, Alison said: “Devastated, gutted. You don’t take it for granted (there will be a match) but you hope and hope. Every day you think you’re going to get that phone call. It just never happened for us.”
Alison said the last three months have definitely made the situation worse: “It’s been a long 12 months and the last three months have made it worse really because I used to stay with Mike at the hospital.
“And obviously because this (lockdown) all happened I could not stay. He found that really hard.”
Alison left the hospital in March and Mike remained there for a month where she was unable to visit him. He then spent a further three weeks there before returning home again.
“It was really hard for him, and the appointments and stuff I can’t go to. It is hard, especially if you are not getting nice news.”
Alison is now urging young people, especially men, to join the stem cell register.
“That is what he needs now or he will die. He had chemo but they could not find a match for the stem cell and the leukaemia came back.
“They have said there’s no point putting him back through chemo, making him weak again, if he does not have a match.
“Every time the phone rings every day you are thinking please, but it has just not happened.
“Even if we can help other people by getting people to join up.
“Everyone’s just trying to be positive, something will turn up. It’s not Mike’s time yet, he wanted to go to the Isle of Man and to Spain. He’d just set up a workshop to do up bikes.
“Apart from this illness he has so much life in him. But as time goes on, it’s not looking great.”
The couple live in Wrexham near Alison’s parents and Mike’s brother and sister, who he is very close to. They have only been able to see Mike at a distance.
“He’s very positive and trying to stay mentally strong. He is trying to keep his strength up. He has been like that all the way through.”
Rebecca Sedgewick, National Recruitment Manager at Anthony Nolan, said: “By all accounts Mike was a man about Wrexham, a big personality, who many will remember well.
“He has had his retirement planned out when he received his diagnosis and forcing him to put his life on hold. But there could be a cure out there.
“Mike has joined the five people a day who start their search for an unrelated stem cell donor. Every single person who signs up to the register has the potential to give hope to someone like Mike in need of a lifesaving stem cell transplant.
“We’re especially keen for young men to consider signing up, they account for over 50% of those chosen to donate but make up just 18% of the Anthony Nolan register.
“We really need young men to visit our website, find out more and help us address this imbalance.”
Anthony Nolan recruits people aged between 16 and 30 to the stem cell register as research has shown younger people are more likely to be chosen to donate.
To find out how you can become a donor, visit their website.
They also carry out ground-breaking research to save more lives and provide information and support to patients after a stem cell transplant through its clinical nurse specialists and psychologists, who help guide patients through their recovery.
It costs £40 to recruit each potential donor to the register, so Anthony Nolan relies on financial support.