Brother flies across the world to donate stem cells after sister told she had two years to live
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A brother has flown across the world to donate stem cells to help save his sister’s life after she was told she had just two years to live. Colin Gwilliam, 56, flew from Wellington, New Zealand, to Leeds after he was found as a perfect tissue match for his older sister, Jenny, who needed a stem cell transplant to help treat blood cancer. Jenny Gwilliam, 57, from near Malton, North Yorkshire, was diagnosed with acute myeloid (AML) leukaemia in April.
She explained: “My life was upended when I was told I had AML. I was numb with shock, I had no symptoms at all and suddenly I was being told I had two options – palliative care, with which I could expect another one or two years of life, or intensive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
"Colin told me to try every option, so with his support, I did. So we started the process of flying blood samples across the world to reconfirm that he was a perfect match. When I found out that he had been accepted by the transplant donor team, it felt like a gift.”.
When a patient needs a stem cell transplant, their tissue type must match that of the donor, making finding a match quite difficult. Siblings have a 25% chance of being a full match and are tested first. Colin visited NHS Blood and Transplant’s Therapeutic Apheresis Services (TAS) in Leeds in June to have his stem cells collected and just two days later he watched them being infused into his sister’s blood stream, in a bid to replace her cells with new, healthy ones. The IT Manager and father of one, said: “Flying across the world to potentially save my sister’s life was a no-brainer. I would have done anything I could. There’s only 14 months between us so we’ve always been close but having gone through this process together has made us even closer. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to help my big sister in this way and would do it all over again.”.
