Exeter mum's search for lifesaving donor

A mother from Exeter who has leukaemia is appealing for people to register online as potential blood stem cell donors with Delete Blood Cancer UK.

The appeal is being made by 36-year-old mother of three Kate Barnett, who needs to find a matching donor to save her life. If a matching donor isn’t found for her, she will have to resort to receiving blood stem cells from her 17 year old son who is not a perfect match for her, which is a higher risk procedure than receiving blood stem cells from a perfectly matching donor.

Kate, who is from Whipton and works at Tesco, has three sons. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in October 2015. She was also told that she urgently needs a blood stem cell donation to treat it. A last resort will be a donation of blood stem cell from her son, who is only a fifty per cent match for her. This is known as a haploidentical donation and is less likely to succeed than a donation from a perfectly matching donor.

Appealing for people to register, Kate says: “There seems to be a lack of knowledge about donating blood stem cells, but it really is a simple and usually pain free thing to do. I know first hand the stress and upset it can cause to a family being diagnosed with a blood cancer and being told that you need a blood stem cell donation.

“But to then be told there is unfortunately not a match for you is very frightening. If I can find a better matched donor my chances to save my life are increased. I'm sure there is a match for everybody out there so we need to get as many people as possible to sign the register, not just for myself but for everyone that is waiting for a match."

Emphasising how important it is for people to register, Jenny Clegg, Head of Communications at Delete Blood Cancer UK, said: “It is wonderful that Kate’s son is willing to donate some of his blood stem cells to help save her life, but it would be better and more likely to succeed if a perfectly matching donor was found for her.

“That could be you, so please take a few minutes to register as a potential blood stem cell donor to see if you are a match for Kate, or one of the thousands of people in need of a donation for their survival.”

You can register in five minutes online and request a cheek swab kit that will enable you to do your own tissue test to go on the database to maybe one day become a blood stem cell donor through the Delete Blood Cancer UK website: www.deletebloodcancer.org.uk