LAUREN Gladden has plenty to smile about these days, and its all thanks to an anonymous American.

For the past three years, Miss Gladden, 24, has been fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer.

Last year, doctors told her a bone marrow transplant was her only hope.

And, after several months on the Anthony Nolan Trust register, a donor was found thousands of miles away in the United States, who has given Miss Gladden the gift of life.

Three months on from the transplant, nursery nurse Miss Gladden is recovering well and is already planning a trip to the US to say thank you in person.

She said: “To start off with I did not want the transplant, I was not interested because I had been through too much already.

“But when you stop and think, the doctors were still being positive and saying there was still a chance to cure it.

“I am three months down the line and everything is looking good. I had a scan three weeks ago and it came back to show there was no signs of cancer.

“Mum says every week she can see an improvement.”

The donor’s bone marrow had to be extracted in America and flown to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital last September.

Before the transplant, Miss Gladden had to undergo a high dose of chemotherapy to stop her body rejecting the new bone marrow, but it left her open to infection.

Full recovery takes up to two years and, in the meantime, Miss Gladden, of Deene Close, Adderbury, near Banbury, must avoid crowded areas as her immune system is low, and she still gets tired easily.

But she has already started planning a trip to the US in two years’ time when she hopes to thank her donor in person.

Anthony Nolan Trust rules mean she can only speak to the anonymous donor via the trust for the first two years. After that, parties can agree to speak directly or even meet.

Miss Gladden said: “Now I know it is working and I am getting well, in two years’ time I am going to America to say thank you so much.”

She was diagnosed with leukaemia in April 2008 after finding a lump on her shoulder. Initially she had chemotherapy and stem cell treatment using her own bone marrow, but that didn’t work.

Doctors failed to find a bone marrow match among family and friends and her name was added to the Anthony Nolan Trust search last year.

The Register

LAUREN Gladden is urging anyone aged 18-40 to sign up to the Anthony Nolan Trust register.

At any one time the charity estimates 1,600 people in the UK or 37,000 worldwide are waiting to find a bone marrow match.

In 2009/10, 386 people from outside the UK, including 131 from the US, donated bone marrow for patients in the UK.

In the same year, 937 people got a bone marrow transplant thanks to the Anthony Nolan Trust.