One mother's touching appeal for more blood stem cell donors.

Danielle Hatcher is urging people to register with blood cancer charity DKMS to save the lives of those diagnosed with life threatening blood cancer – as a stranger did for her daughter, Myla Mae.

Myla’s diagnosis

Try to imagine the unimaginable - within 48 hours just before Christmas 2017, I was told my daughter had a life threatening condition and needed a blood stem cell donation from a stranger.

It started when we were putting up our Christmas decorations and Myla fell over. I thought nothing of it but the following evening, I was bathing her and noticed large, dark bruises on her legs. I was concerned but our new-born son was unwell with bronchitis so that was at the forefront of my mind.

While I was at the hospital with my son, I mentioned the bruises to the doctor and he told me to bring her in for a check-up. They ran tests which ruled out leukaemia which was a massive relief, but said she had aplastic anaemia, a serious condition meaning a deficiency of all three blood cell types. I’d never heard of it and couldn’t believe it when they said my healthy, energetic Myla would need blood transfusions to keep her alive and at some point she would need a blood stem cell transfusion.

 Researching the condition

I was so scared for Myla’s life and felt powerless to help her. So I started researching everything I could about my daughter’s condition. I quickly learnt that blood cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with someone in the UK diagnosed with the life altering condition every 20 minutes.

For most people there is no single cure. But, a blood stem cell donation from a genetically similar person can offer the best treatment and a second chance at life. Unfortunately, only 1 in 3 people with a blood cancer (and in need of a transplant) will find a matching blood stem cell donor within their own family – 2 in 3 need to look outside of this. Myla’s little brother wasn’t a match so we realised we had to get as many people as we could to register as blood stem cell donors to try and save Myla’s life.

Finding Myla’s match

It took over our lives. My mum and husband both quit their jobs to devote their time to finding a match and getting the message out there. Everyone we knew was asking if they could help. Through sponsored runs and coffee mornings, we’ve raised over £10,000 for DKMS and asked everyone we knew to register as a blood stem cell donor.

Luckily, Myla’s match was eventually found and I will never forget the day the doctors told us. Knowing that an anonymous stranger has saved your child’s life reminds you of the good in the world. We are so lucky and this experience has made me count my blessings every day but so many families are still waiting to find a match for their loved one.

What you can do to save a life

As it currently stands the register of donors doesn’t match the demand. So I’m asking you, on behalf of other families who are going through the same awful situation, please register as a blood stem cell donor with DKMS. You could be someone’s only hope. You request a home swab kit on the website, swab the inside of your cheeks and post the kit back, so your details can be added to the UK’s aligned stem cell registry. You then go on standby to help someone like Myla who is in desperate need of a blood stem cell transplant.

Donating blood stem cells

There is a lot of fear around blood stem cell donation – of the process itself and of having a ‘depleted’ supply of stem cells – but this just isn’t the case. The process is incredibly easy to do and is similar to donating blood.

 Around 90% of all donations are made through a method called peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC). In this method, blood is taken from one of the donor’s arms and a machine extracts the blood stem cells from it. The donor’s blood is then returned to them through their other arm. This is an outpatient procedure that is usually completed in 4-6 hours. In just 10% of cases, donations are made through bone marrow collection. This is under general anaesthetic so that no pain is experienced.

So if you’re 17 – 55 (and in general good health) take the first step go to DKMS to register as a potential stem donor and visit dkms.org.uk today.