'Everyone with blood cancer deserves a donor'

A woman with an aggressive blood cancer is appealing for more mixed‑race stem cell donors, as she waits for a life‑saving match.

Beth Doherty, 31, initially believed her exhaustion was anaemia but was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at the end of March.

Doctors say she needs a stem cell transplant to stop the cancer returning, but finding a suitable donor is harder because of her mixed‑race heritage.

"My doctor sat me down and was very frank and said, look, it can be much harder for mixed race people to find a stem cell match," she said.

Bronagh Hughes from charity DKMS said: "Only about 7% of the population are signed up, and of that, only 16% are of any ethnic minority background."

Just a week after her diagnosis, Doherty, from St Pauls in Bristol, was given a stark assessment of what would happen without a transplant.

"I was told I will definitely need a transplant to stop the cancer coming back because if I don't have the transplant, there's an 80% chance it will return," she said.

She has since undergone two rounds of intensive chemotherapy.

"We find there might be issues where there's fears about getting involved in something that they think might be quite difficult or painful when it's actually really easy," said Hughes.

There are two ways to donate stem cells, peripheral stem cell donation, and bone marrow donation.

Peripheral stem cell donation is similar to donating blood, and is used in 90% of donation cases.

Bone marrow donation is done under general anaesthetic.

For Doherty, the transplant is not just a treatment option- it is her only chance of long‑term survival.

The risk of her cancer recurring halves if she has a transplant, and continues to drop in later years.

"I need this to save my life, and if I don't have this treatment, then my cancer will come back and it will come back aggressively.

"Everyone with a blood cancer or blood disorder deserves to find their matching donor.

"My only chance of a long-term cure is receiving stem cells of somebody else because my bone marrow is faulty and it's always going to be.

"I need a new immune system basically, and that is my only chance."

Doherty is now urging more people - particularly those from mixed‑race backgrounds - to consider joining the stem cell donor register, in the hope it could save lives like hers.

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