Canadian woman's life saved by British man's stem cell donation
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A Canadian woman, close to dying from leukemia, recently met up with the British man who saved her life.
Jennifer Breckenridge was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 49. Less than a year later, doctors told her she was also dealing with acute myeloid leukemia.
After being told her family was not a stem cell match, a global search eventually identified Lee Taylor, of Bispham, England, as a donor thousands of kilometres away.
“It’s amazing to think that I have literally been able to save someone’s life, a lady halfway across the world whom I didn’t even know but who was sadly just two weeks away from dying,” Taylor, a father of three, told the Blackpool Gazette.
Taylor was giving blood one day when he registered as a potential donor and forgot about it.
However, the former military serviceman was told he was a match and promptly donated via peripheral blood stem cell collection in London in December 2022.
Breckenridge, now 53, began her recovery and is now in remission more than two years later.
Breckenridge said meeting with Taylor for the first time was indescribable.
“Just an incredible moment that I will never forget,” she told ITV News.
torontosun.com |
