Daventry stem cell donor’s lifesaving donation to transatlantic stranger
“I thought, why don't I just do it? Because you never know if you can help.”
Jerome Davies, 49, a computer systems analyst from Daventry, is in many ways a very normal East Midlander – he’s an avid runner and married father of two grown-up daughters.
However, recently he did something truly amazing. He offered a total stranger a second chance at life – selflessly donating some of his stem cells after signing up to the stem cell donor register with blood cancer charity DKMS UK.
It all began about six years ago, when Jerome was watching television and saw an appeal for a young girl who needed to find a compatible stem cell donor. T
hinking about how he might feel if one of his own daughters was in the same situation, Jerome decided to join the stem cell donor register.
“I thought, why don't I just do it?” he recalls. “Because you never know if you can help.”
For many patients with blood cancer and blood disorders, a stem cell transplant represents their only opportunity for a second chance at life, but just one in three patients will find a matching donor in their family, which is where the stem cell donor register comes in.
Anyone aged 16 to 55 and in general good health can, like Jerome, join the DKMS stem cell donor register by completing some painless mouth swabs and answering a few health questions. Go to dkms.org.uk to order your free kit.
Six years went by, and Jerome was at work when he got a call from DKMS to say he’d been matched with someone needing a stem cell transplant.
”To be honest, I’d forgotten about registering,” he says, “but I got excited. I thought ‘I could help someone out here’.”
Jerome had some initial questions and nerves – and needed to have a blood test and a medical to ensure he was indeed a compatible match and fit enough to donate – but DKMS answered his queries and made all the arrangements for him to donate at a clinic in London, accompanied by his wife.
It was an outpatient procedure similar to donating blood platelets.
“I thought I'd be nervous, but I wasn't at all,” he remembers. “I imagined I was on a long-haul flight in first class, lying down, watching films on my tablet. It went so quick!”
There are strict regulations protecting the anonymity of donors and recipients immediately following a donation, but Jerome does know that his cells were immediately put on a plane across the Atlantic, and were received by a young person in America.
“As I donated, there was somebody waiting to take my stem cells as fast as possible. I think they did go from Heathrow that night,” he says.
Now, Jerome has joined forces with DKMS to encourage other people to join the register too.
DKMS spokesperson Deborah Hyde says: “What Jerome has done is inspirational. Everyone who signs up to the stem cell donor register and goes on to donate is a key link in a worldwide chain of hope for people waiting to have a compatible transplant.
"If you are matched as a donor for someone, in nine out of ten cases, like Jerome’s, donating is a simple, outpatient procedure similar to donating blood platelets, and can be completed in a few hours. Plus, DKMS will support you every step of the way.”
Jerome says: “By doing some painless swabs – a few minutes, that’s all – you’re on the register and that could lead to you saving someone’s life. It’s as simple as that!”