Blood cancer, a Stem Cell Transplant and the life saver that is Anthony Nolan...

One of our team members, Mark, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in October 2024. Over the next 3 months Mark was an inpatient at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, and, by December 2024 Mark had undergone two failed rounds of chemotherapy. On 13th December 2024, Mark was given a terminal prognosis of between 2 and 4 weeks to live. On 20th December 2025 Mark and his partner, Steena, were married in hospital, before Mark went home to spend the rest of his days with his family.

At the end of January 2025 Mark went to see his Consultant and was put on a life prolonging injection based chemotherapy. In May 2025 Mark was referred to Kings College Hospital in London, where Mark and Steena met a Consultant who proposed an experimental cocktail of chemotherapies which could potentially impact Mark's vital organs, would send him 'to hell and back' physically and mentally, but just might get him to a place where he could be the recipient of a stem cell transplant which could lead to a remission. In early September 2024 Mark underwent a stem cell transplant with donor cells coming from a 28 year old male from Chile! On 30th September 2024 Mark was discharged from Kings College Hospital and on 30th December 2025 Mark was told he was in remission!

Mark's experience and journey was been one of many low's that culminated in the ultimate high! Mark has relied heavily on the support of his family, friends, all manner of healthcare professionals, industry peers and colleagues and everyone in between to help get him through! However, if it wasn't for Anthony Nolan and the pioneering work they do, simply put, Mark would not be here. Of course, the decision taken by Kings to try a cocktail of experimental chemotherapy has also played a huge part, however, chemotherapy alone was never going to be enough to get Mark into remission; a donor had to be found! Not only that, the donor needed to be as near a 100% match in every area so that Mark could have a stem cell transplant. Thankfully this turned out to be the case!

A bit about Anthony Nolan...

Anthony Nolan’s world-leading stem cell register, ground-breaking cell and gene therapy research and expertise in stem cell transplants means we currently help four patients a day in need of a transplant, giving more people another chance to live. But we know we can, and must, do more. Driven by patients, backed by stem cell donors, powered by science, and with your support, we won’t stop until we’ve uncovered the lifesaving potential of the cells inside us all, and every patient can survive and thrive.