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Adam Fradgley / DKMS
Gary Hodges and Karen Scoltock Call Brother and Sister After Donating Stem Cells That Saved His Life
Blood cancer is the fifth most common cancer type in the UK, with one person being diagnosed every 20 minutes, according to the DKMS charity. Only a third of patients requiring blood stem cell donation find a donor in their family – the others depend on the chances of finding a match in the stem cell registry.
Gary Hodges was one of those people.
It was during a highly anticipated trip abroad to see his family that he began to feel bad. A few days after arriving in New Zealand, he began to feel exhausted, but he got rid of it.
By the time he and his wife Marion arrived in the United States, Gary could barely walk. He began to realize that it was something more serious.
He went to the hospital and was taken blood samples, which showed that his hemoglobin level was dangerously low and that he did not have enough platelets.
"I had the impression that it was a leukemia," he said. "I hoped they would say" no, [it’s not that]& # 39; but this did not happen.
"Starting from San Francisco and looking out at the city from the window, I remember thinking that I would never see my son there again.
"It was hugely disturbing."
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Gary Hodges
Gary Hodges and his wife Marion have two sons, James and Philip.
Back home, in Lymington, Hampshire, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer, which usually affects about 3,100 people each year in the UK.
It became clear that the only hope of saving the life of this 63-year-old man would be a stem cell transplant.
He was added to the list of 2,000 people who were hoping for a match every year and waited.
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Adam Fradgley / DKMS
Karen was inspired to join the stem cell donor registry with a call to a young boy
More than 250 km away, Karen Scoltock watched BBC North West Tonight at her home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
She had felt depressed after the death of her father at the age of 72 years of lung cancer and her nephew aged 24.
The 58-year-old mother of three remembers how pain made her helpless. Looking at the program, she found herself inspired by a call to stem cell donors and decided to sign up.
By ordering an online registration kit, she stamped the cheek at home and mailed it. As with all potential donors, its tissue type was badyzed and the details entered anonymously into the UK stem cell registry.
"I could not help them, my father and my nephew, but this was broadcast on TV and I thought:" I can help someone, I can register as a Stem cell donor, find a match and hope to save someone's life, "Karen said.
"I was at a time in my life where I could do it, I wanted to do it, I really wanted to help someone."
Three months later, she received a letter – it was perfect for Gary, who was now undergoing an exhausting chemotherapy treatment in Southampton.
Karen went on to the next stage of the donation by going to a London hospital where her stem cells were collected. A day later, they were taken to Gary, who received them in a manner similar to a blood transfusion.
It would be two years before they meet.
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Gary Hodges
Gary received Karen's stem cells one day after giving them.
There are several stem cell registries in the UK, but their information is also stored in the Anthony Nolan and NHS national registries, which has 1.4 million people on its list.
Anyone between the ages of 18 and 55 and in good health can become a potential donor. A match is established based on the type of human leukocyte antigen, or type of tissue, rather than on the basis of the type of blood.
When this happens, the blood stem cells are taken from a donor. In 90% of cases, a thin needle takes blood from their arm and a machine extracts the stem cells. The blood is then returned to them by the other arm. The other 10% involves taking bone marrow from the hip.
Once extracted, the blood stem cells are perfused into the patient by an infusion into the arm, where they move into the blood stream to the bone marrow to which they belong. From there, they produce red and white blood cells and platelets, which allows the stem cells of the donor's healthy blood to replace the patient's diseased cells.
For Gary, the results were as he had hoped.
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Black, Asian or minority patients have a 20% chance of finding the best donor possible, compared to 69% of white North Europeans.
"Stem cells populated and started producing bone marrow in a few weeks," he said.
"I can not describe how one feels when doctors say they have detected white blood cells, it was an exciting and moving moment."
Gary and Karen had gone home to different ends of the country after the procedures and for all intents and purposes, a normal life. But both were eager to find out more.
For Karen, there was an element of frustration: in UK law, anonymity is two years from the date of the transplant and contact can only be established with the patient's consent.
"The only thing I knew, was that it was a man over 18 in the UK, that was all the information I had," she said.
"You want to know, but on the other hand you are a little afraid in case it does not work."
Karen and Gary exchanged letters for two years before discovering each other's identity.
From Gary, he was overwhelmed by the need to thank Karen. A loophole allows donors and recipients to exchange letters anonymously, and Gary did it right away.
"Thank you for your kindness and generosity," he wrote. "Your gift of life is very appreciated and I will always be grateful".
When the card fell on Karen's doormat, she felt relieved.
"I thought, if that's all I find out, I'm happy."
But the two men continued to exchange brief notes over the next two years, until they could exchange personal data via DKMS. Then Gary said that there was an "avalanche of emails" between the two, detailing their lives and their families.
Finally, on Christmas day 2018, Karen picked up the phone.
"We talked for almost an hour," said Gary. "We discussed our families, what we did, I think she wanted to know more about some of the things I've experienced.
"I was blown away, it was the best Christmas present I had that year."
They agreed to meet face to face and four months later, in April, they did it at a DKMS event in Birmingham. Gary was waiting in a restaurant for Karen's arrival – nervous but excited.
Karen said, "When I [saw him]I said, "Well, I've been waiting for this for a long time."
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Adam Fradgley / DKMS
The two men met for the first time in April at a DKMS event in Birmingham.
Stem cell therapy is effective for 40-80% of patients, according to DKMS, which has half a million potential donors in its registry.
Survival after transplantation depends on many factors, including the age and condition of the patient, the timing of the donation, the type of underlying disease, and potential complications.
Gary has been in remission for three and a half years. He runs most of the morning and likes to go for a walk with Marion.
He has not had any lasting effects, but he has to be careful about the infection because his new immune system is immature and he has had to be vaccinated again as a child. He still goes to Southampton Hospital for routine tests every three months.
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Gary Hodges
Gary, with his wife Marion, said that his life had been transformed since the transplant.
"I am absolutely fit and in better shape than most of the 66 years," he said. "It's not like I've been treated and I'm becoming a frail old man, it's my whole life.
"It's amazing how it affected me and changed my view of the world.The sky is bluer, the green on the leaves is greener."
The friendship between Karen and Gary has continued. They meet from time to time and write each other. He added that they now refer to each other as "brother and sister".
"We just shared normal updates, we are good friends and she was delighted to hear that my son Philip was engaged.
"Manchester in Lymington is miles away, so it's hard to get together, but she really feels like my sister."
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For Karen, a married mother of six grandchildren, this experience has also changed the lives of every day.
"I feel very close to Gary, it's just very satisfying.
"How many people can say that they saved someone's life?"
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Adam Fradgley / DKMS
Gary and Karen, who live about 220 km from each other, talk regularly and hope to see each other again soon.
About 70,000 people joined the stem cell registry in the first months of 2019, compared to a total of 125,000 last year.
Lisa Nugent, DKMS Donor Recruitment Officer, said her baseline year had been the most successful to date. She explained that she had to raise public awareness following high-profile campaigns to find matches for children.
Among them are Paddy Igoe, 12, of Coventry and Ihsan Khan, 6, from Telford, suffering from aplastic anemia, and Finley Hill, of Belbroughton, Worcestershire, who suffers from a rare disorder of the immune system, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.
Three matches were found earlier this year for five-year-old Oscar Saxelby-Lee of Worcester, who has just had a transplant.
Although, like Gary, his family does not immediately know the identity of his donor, his mother, Olivia Saxelby, said that she would like to contact him in the future.
"If they want to be part of our family, we will open these doors larger than anyone and hope that they are ready to spend every Christmas, every birthday with us."
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The mother of Oscar Saxelby-Lee says that she hopes to meet her son's donor
According to DKMS, more than 6,000 potential donors have signed up for Oscar events, while more than 3,000 have registered for Paddy events, Nugent said.
All of these people, she said, have the potential to be a donor for someone, and a person recorded during the Oscar campaign has already been identified as being able to match another person. patient.
Nugent said what families and their communities have done to encourage people to join the donor registry has been "phenomenal".
"I always think that these families, who are going through the most difficult times imaginable, are somehow paying off, they are doing something that will bring real help not only to their families, but also to the other people who need help. be paired, "she says.
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Karen Scoltock
Karen is a grandmother of six children and a mother of three
Karen said her family was concerned that she would donate, but that she was proud of what she accomplished. A cousin and a former co-worker have even followed suit and become donors themselves.
"[Family and friends] know what I am once I have something fixed, "said Karen.
"I'm proud of myself, I do not brag, but whenever I talk about it, it's to encourage others to sign up."
Gary thinks that he will never really be able to express all his gratitude to Karen, to whom he credits for saving his life.
"She is so nice, extremely kind, extremely generous, lovely family, and she is a fat girl, we are both fat, which is good too.
"[The day we met] I was asked to give an improvised speech, which I found quite difficult, then Karen came in and stood next to me and suddenly, it was a lot easier, j & rsquo; I could talk about our story.
"I remember saying a few words about what she did, but I removed her microphone.
"What she had done, she did not have to do it, all that I did, I had to do it.
"The problem is, what do you say, how do you say thank you, that does not seem enough."
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DKMS
Gary said that he did not know how to thank Karen for what she had done
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