John Taylor, aged 47, from Kingsclere near Newbury, is a firefighter with the Hampshire Fire and Rescue team who helped save lives in Haiti following the devastating earthquake earlier this year, who now finds himself fighting his own battle, having been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia recently. It transpires that this is a condition that he has in fact been harbouring for a few years unbeknown to John.
If diagnosed early enough, his leukaemia type can be treated with a low dose of chemotherapy in tablet form, only when it becomes advanced as it had for John, does a bone marrow transplant become necessary.
Knowing this was the next course of action, John was lucky enough to learn about the Anthony Nolan Trust from a friend in his village Alison Collington, who happens to work with the Trust as a volunteer.
Alison told us:
“John is a great friend of mine and thankfully his tissue type for a bone marrow match is normal. Hence he has been found a match of up to 500 potential donors to choose from the Anthony Nolan Bone Barrow Register. Thank goodness! However there are so many people who do not have this choice. My nephew Matthew did not find a suitable donor and died aged just 16, just over 3 years ago. There are currently 1400 people in UK awaiting a Bone marrow Transplant. The chances of a family member being a donor is 1 in 4. So an amazing 70% of Bone Marrow Transplants are carried out using the donation of a complete stranger.”
Keen to raise awareness of the need for donors and to help other Leukaemia sufferers benefit, John is hoping to encourage people to attend a one-day donor clinic in Kingsclere next Tuesday May 25th.
The clinic will be at the Fieldgate Centre off Fox's Lane Kingsclere from 4 - 8pm. It is open for anyone in good health aged from 18 - 40 (17.5 with parental consent.) Joining the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register to be a potential donor is easy - no needles, no blood just a simple saliva test. More information can be found at http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/donating
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