Patient stories
Two year 're-birthday'!
Tania was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia on the 7th of July 2016. Despite there being about 28 million people registered on global stem cell registries Tania was told there are no compatible donors on the registry for her.
Tania, like many, has a mixed heritage; her father is from the Balkans (Croatia) and her mother’s heritage is from the British Isles. Ethnicity is one of the main factors in stem cell donor matching, but the world’s volunteer bone marrow donors do not currently reflect the ethnic diversity of the population. Many groups, such as Balkan countries, are under-represented.
Tania had months of gruelling treatment and her cancer went into remission. Unfortunately, early in 2020 she relapsed and returned to hospital for more treatment. A matter of weeks later a donor match was found! It felt like a miracle to Tania and it was fortunate that the stem cells arrived just before the world started to lockdown for the pandemic.
She described her cancer journey as a roller coaster the lows of relapse followed so quickly by the news that a donor had been found.
It is now two years since the stem cell transplant and Tania is well and celebrating with family and friends. She is grateful to her friends and supporters around the world for spreading her story, registering as donors, and giving her their love and support.
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