Dad who donated stem cells never knew if his patient survived — until a letter 2 years later left him in tears
Some questions might be left unanswered for quite some time. A dad, Graeme Thomson, who had donated stem cells for a patient in need, often wondered if the person made it or not. Thomson had donated the stem cells anonymously to a patient who desperately needed a transplant to survive. A couple of years later, he got a heartwarming letter that answered all his questions. The letter also made him feel glad that he decided to donate stem cells, per Glasgow Live.
Thomson had decided to register as a stem cell donor a few years ago. A year after his registration, he turned out to be the stem cell match of a patient being treated for blood cancer. DKMS, a blood cancer charity, had reached out to him for the same. "Honestly, I barely remember signing up. I’m not sure what prompted it, but it seemed to be a very easy process and I knew that if there was ever someone who needed me, I’d be happy to help," Thomson remarked. The man went through some medical checkups and then flew to London to donate his stem cells. The stem cells were donated through a simple outpatient procedure called PBSC, per the outlet.
"The donation process itself could not have been easier. If anything, it was actually quite enjoyable. I was flown down to London and put up in a hotel for a couple of days. I spent a few hours at the hospital, hooked up to the machine and I ate some sandwiches – that was pretty much it. People sometimes think donating stem cells is a big, invasive surgery, but it was all very simple." The person received the stem cells after that. However, Thomson had no idea about what had happened after he was done with his part of the procedure. A couple of years later, the man found out that a dad from England had received his stem cells and was doing quite well after the treatment.
He got those answers because of a letter the cancer survivor had written for him. "It was an unreal feeling. Until I got that letter, I hadn’t even been sure that he had made it, so it was a big relief to know that he was okay." Over 2000 patients in the UK need a stem cell transplant each year, per Blood Cancer UK. A lot of them would need such a donation from an unrelated donor. But only three percent of people in the country are registered to be stem cell donors. So Thomson was glad to help someone who was also a dad like him. "He wrote to me to say thank you and to let me know that the transplant had saved his life. He was totally cancer-free and had gone back to normal. It turned out that his situation had been very poor; he had stopped chemo and the transplant was his last hope."
"He had been thinking about how to say goodbye to his children, which, as a dad myself, was hard to hear. I’m just glad that he never had to do it; he got to go home - I’m so happy I was able to play a part in that." Thomson added, "I’m grateful to be fit and healthy enough to take this on. This whole experience has shown me that you can’t take that for granted. I hope that this will encourage everyone to get on the stem cell donor register. It’s so easy to give someone another chance." Bronagh Hughes, a spokesperson from DKMS, explained, "Joining the stem cell register is really easy; it just involves a few cheek swabs and a few health questions."
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