Heroes Monica and Bryan Davies had only just trained as couriers (递送员) for the charity Anthony Nolan when the coronavirus broke out. But they were determined to volunteer to deliver stem cells to cancer patients, inspired by their daughter Helen's brave battle with her illness and meeting the selfless stem cell donor who came to her rescue.
Monica, 67, said: "I couldn't bear the thought that other families standing by a hospital bed, being told the transplant couldn't go ahead because the stem cells couldn't get through."
Helen was diagnosed (诊断) with Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2010. The diagnosis was all the more terrifying as a close family friend had lost their teenage son to the disease a decade earlier, but at first the doctors comforted Helen and said she was likely to make a full recovery.
The doctors said Helen's age and fitness worked in her favour. They said she would have six months of treatment and she would be fine. But within months of finishing her treatment, Helen's cough returned and scans revealed a shadow on her chest. Further investigations confirmed the cancer was back.
The doctors used up all treatments except a stem cell transplant from a donor. Thankfully a matching donor was found on the Anthony Nolan stem cell register and Helen had her transplant in March 2014. This time Helen made a good recovery. She wanted to contact her donor, but strict anonymity (匿名) rules prevent patients meeting their donor for two years after the transplant.
As soon as she was allowed, Helen made contact with her donor Ben Potts, from Kent. They quickly became friends and she invited him to her wedding in September 2016.
After that, Monica and Bryan decided to support Anthony Nolan and volunteered to become stem cell couriers when they retired and returned to England.
The couple made three deliveries a week at the peak of the pandemic. They've now covered 15,000 miles. Henny Braund, Anthony Nolan's chief executive said: "Over the last year our volunteer couriers have showed just how committed they are to giving people with blood cancer a second chance of life."
