Leukaemia survivor backs blood donation campaign (From Oxford Mail)

Leukaemia survivor backs blood donation campaign

1:46pm Monday 24th August 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

A BICESTER councillor who fought and beat life-threatening leukaemia is using her experience to get behind a nationwide blood donor campaign.

Carol Steward, 62, was given just weeks to live in 2004 after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.

She immediately started weekly blood transfusions, which she says were responsible for her survival.

Four months later, only after doctors stabilised her condition, were they able to offer the bone marrow transplant that saved her life.

Now five years later she has joined a new campaign urging people to sign up to give blood and take along a friend as well.

Mother-of-one Mrs Steward, who is a town and district councillor, said: “It’s quite simple – if it wasn’t for blood donors I wouldn’t be alive today. I was diagnosed very suddenly and the prognosis wasn’t good.

“I received my first blood transfusion of three units almost immediately. This was followed by weekly transfusions at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

“Because they improved me so much with the blood, that was when I got the chance to see if there was a bone marrow donor.

“They kept me alive long enough for the transplant to happen.”

She added: “The day-to-day need for blood is astounding but it takes just one hour to donate blood and people can give blood three times a year.

“That’s just three hours a year to give somebody the gift of life.”

Mrs Steward was at the London launch of the campaign with celebrities including actor Don Warrington, who played Phillip in 1970s TV show Rising Damp, and members of dance group Diversity, who won Britain’s Got Talent.

The blood service launched the campaign after concerns were raised that swine flu might add to the seasonal drop in donations.

Lynda Hamlyn, chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “We hope ‘buddying up’ will encourage more people to give blood and spread the word.

“There’s always a dip in donations over summer and people can’t give blood when they’ve got flu, so we need people to donate now.

“If you’ve always intended to give blood but never got around to it, please come along this summer.”

While she was ill Mrs Steward, of Ashdene Road, Bicester, spearheaded a campaign backed by Bicester Village to get more people to sign up for the Anthony Nolan Trust bone marrow register.

In just a few months, 110 people from the town joined the register and one has already donated bone marrow and saved a life.

To donate blood call 0300 123 23 23.