Trudy's Christmas gift - of life

Mother-of-two Trudy, of Heatherdune Road, is preparing to donate vital stem cells to a leukaemia patient.

"It is a lovely Christmas present for somebody - the family must be so desperate." said Trudy.

She has wanted to donate since reading the story of Bexhill child with leukaemia in the Observer over six years ago.

A campaign to find donors and a possible match was executed, with a special clinic at St Stephen's Church where potential donors were given blood tests to register with The Anthony Nolan Trust.

Trudy, 41, registered her blood sample then and just months ago the Trust contacted her to say they had found a recipient.

At a medical on Tuesday, Trudy chose the stem cell method of donating. This is a relatively new method which can be used instead of extracting bone marrow.

"I will have five injections which will cause the stem cells to get through the bone and into my blood." said Trudy.

The injections are given over five days, and on day four Trudy will go into hospital in London.

On day five she will have blood taken, which by this time includes her stem cells - the important part of the donation.

She has been warned of the pain of stem cells releasing through the bone but this can be controlled by relatively weak painkillers such as paracetamol.

Trudy will then recover over Christmas, which she will spend with her family, in time to start a new job in January.

Her 18-year-old Natalie, 15-year-old Daniel and her husband Mark are in full support.

"I have discussed with them that they are in agreement with me doing this.

"They have been very supportive and shown interest.

"I think everyone has been supportive. Some people have said they couldn't do it themselves."

Trudy works in healthcare and with the support and information she has received from the Anthony Nolan Trust, she is not nervous about the donation.

"I'm just pleased I can help somebody, especially at Christmas time. It seems like an ideal Christmas present." she said.

Although the charity hears of up to 4000 new patients each year in need of a transplant, the difficulty in finding matches means the record total of transplants has been 476 one year.

As well as finding matches, the charity must raise over 12million to pay for the service it offers and has no core government funding.

More information is available on the Anthony Nolan Trust website www.anthonynolan.org.uk or by calling the hotline: 0901 88 22 234.