Woman with rare blood cancer seeks stem cell match

A woman with a rare blood cancer is appealing for stem cell donors to come forward in an attempt to treat her.

Paula Fraser from Whitchurch, Shropshire, currently has to travel for weekly treatment in Manchester, with her illness causing severe anaemia and "almost non-existent" immunity.

"The fatigue is really difficult. I get breathless walking up the stairs and have to stop halfway," she said.

She hopes her myelofibrosis could be cured if she finds the right match, and is encouraging potential donors to help her or others through an appeal by blood cancer charity DKMS.

"My bone marrow is worn out, basically, it's gone haywire... become inflamed and all this scar tissue has built up. And all the cells which should be making blood for me can't do that any more," she explained.

Fraser was diagnosed with MDS/MPM overlap syndrome in 2022, undergoing a bone marrow biopsy after suffering from fatigue and a poor response to infections.

She said the condition had developed into myelofibrosis "as it does happen with blood cancers, things move on and in my case get a little bit worse".

DKMS has said someone is diagnosed with blood cancer every 14 minutes in the UK. The specific conditions Paula has are much rarer, with only a few hundred cases of overlap syndrome a year.

The charity runs a programme to match donors with patients via a swab test, potentially leading to a donation of blood to provide stem cells for transplant.

It reassures potential donors that the procedure is similar to giving blood in the normal way, with cells replenished by the body in a couple of weeks.

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