November 2009
‘I’d have given anything to see my sister well again’
Teresa Lovett, a PA for the Cosmetic Surgery department at Spire Methely Park Hosptial, has recently donated stem cells to aid her sister's fight against leukaemia.
“When my sister Sharon phoned me last July to tell me she’d been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, I was devastated. You never expect something like that to happen to your own family. Sharon began chemotherapy immediately and was incredibly ill. When her hair started to fall out she asked a nurse to shave her head. She sent me two pictures via her mobile phone – one of her bald and the other wearing a wig. Looking at them, I couldn’t stop crying”.
“Then, that September, she rang to say she needed a stem cell transplant. This is when stem cells from one person are transplanted to another when a bone marrow has become damaged by chemotherapy”.
How it happened
A blood test revealed that Teresa was a match. “On day five having had to inject myself to produce more cells, I went to the hospital where they were treating Sharon and was given a final injection and was then hooked up to a machine that filtered the cells from my blood. It took four hours and was only mildly uncomfortable”.
And afterwards
“The pain in my bones went and I felt fine after the treatment. Two days later, when my cells had been prepared, they were given to Sharon via a drip. She improved very quickly but by January she needed more cells so I donated again but this time I felt very tired afterwards”.
“A recent medical examination found that Sharon has a mass in her abdomen and another on her leg but I will donate more of my cells as long as Sharon needs me to”.
Spire Methley Park Hospital’s Cosmetic PA, Teresa Lovett, 49, lives with her partner Ron in Castleford, West Yorkshire. She has two sons, Matthew, 23 and Ben, 20.
For more information on leukaemia visit the Anthony Nolan Trust website