'Ineed a donor to give me a fighting chance'

Health Correspondent Barry Nelson meets North-East leukaemia patient Lindsey Wood, who is hoping to join them

LINDSEY Wood is bright, bubbly and full of life. With her short hair and fashionable clothes, she looks like any other 19-year-old, laughing, joking and waving at people she knows.

To show how brave she is, next month she will be strapped into a harness and hard hat before launching herself off the Tyne Bridge as part of a sponsored charity event.

But the smiles and bravado are deceptive, Lindsey has an acute form of leukaemia, a much-feared illness which poses a deadly threat to her young life.

Although she is currently in remission and feeling incomparably better than she did when her illness was diagnosed last year, Lindsey knows that without a compatible bone marrow transplant her long-term outlook is bleak.

That's why she will abseil off the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle on September 28 as part of efforts by the Anthony Nolan Trust (formerly known as the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Appeal) to encourage more North-Easterners to register as potential bone marrow donors.

Yesterday friends and relatives of Lindsey were among those queuing up to give a small sample of blood and register with the Anthony Nolan bone marrow bank at the Tall Trees Hotel in Yarm. Next Tuesday well-wishers who want to help Lindsey and hundreds like her can register with the Anthony Nolan team at a special drop-in clinic between 5.30pm and 9pm at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Lindsey knows that the odds of finding a perfect match are stacked against her but she is unselfishly urging people to come forward to help all leukaemia sufferers.

"Since being diagnosed with leukaemia, I have met loads of people at the hospital who also need bone marrow transplants. If you come forward and register, it could help one of us. This is not just for me, it is for everyone who needs a transplant," she says.

Despite the difficulty of finding a good tissue match, last year the Anthony Nolan Trust found 300 people who donated bone marrow or stem cells, as well as importing donated tissue from 115 overseas donors.

This meant that 415 British patients were given the chance of life during 2002, compared with 408 the previous year. Worldwide, more than 6,000 patients were looking for a suitable match.

All Lindsey knows is that the more potential donors who register in the North-East, the better her chances of receiving a transplant.

"If you are thinking about registering, just do it," says Lindsey, who was working at the Saks hairdressing salon at Tall Trees when she was diagnosed as having leukaemia. "You can't really explain how precious life is until something like this happens. I'm in remission at the moment and if it doesn't come back in the next four months that is great. But it might come back in the future and that's why I need a transplant."

Until last autumn, Lindsey was blissfully unaware of her illness, enjoying her hairdressing job and clubbing with her large circle of friends around Teesside. At first she thought the tiredness she couldn't shake off was something that would pass but as the symptoms persisted, she realised she would have to seek help.

"I was so tired, it's difficult to explain," recalls Lindsey. "I didn't feel like eating and I was drinking ten pints of water a day. I was also drinking loads of coffee and energy drinks to try to give me a lift."

Then the pains started. "I began to get pains, first they were in the back of my legs and back and then they were in my pelvic bone. It got so bad that I was limping when I finally went to see my doctor," says Lindsey.

At first, her GP suspected she might have a trapped nerve but when her condition worsened a week later she was sent off for a same-day blood test at North Tees Hospital in Stockton.

"By that time, I could hardly walk at all, I was shaking, felt sick and was white as a sheet," says Lindsey. Within a few days Lindsey was resting at home when the phone went. "It was a doctor from North Tees who asked me to come in for more tests straight away."

The doctors suspected pernicious anaemia but after a battery of tests she was given the grim news that her illness was acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a serious form of cancer in which white blood cells reproduce uncontrollably, interfering with blood clotting and the patient's ability to fight disease.

Looking back, Lindsey remembers that her parents Albert and Jackie, and older sister Rachel, 22, were left devastated by the news.

Doctors wasted no time in starting chemotherapy treatment. "They said they couldn't leave it because I was so ill," says Lindsey, who has scars near her collar bones from where drug lines were inserted into her main arteries. "They put two lines into my chest and one into my groin."

After treatment, Lindsey lost all of her hair, which is now slowly growing back. Ironically, she gets "loads of compliments" from people who like her short hair.

Specialists at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle told Lindsey her best bet would be a bone marrow, using marrow or stem cells from someone with very similar tissue to her own. But while they're waiting for a suitable donor, doctors performed a procedure which has dramatically improved Lindsey's health.

"They took one and a half litres of my own marrow out, gave me chemotherapy and radiotherapy to kill off the cancer cells and put the bone marrow back in. The idea is to encourage healthy new bone marrow to grow," she adds.

Four months on, Lindsey is feeling near-normal, but she knows that in the long term, only a transplant from a compatible donor will give her more security for the future. "It has slowed the condition down and the doctors are hoping it won't come back. Some days I am tired and some days I am full of life," she says.

The girl from Ingleby Barwick has been bucked up by the amount of support she has received. "The last time I was out clubbing six girls came up to me and said they would be there. All my friends are saying they will register," says Lindsey.

She has also been moved by the kindness of some of her former clients at the salon. "One anonymous lady gave me £500 to have a holiday. How amazing is that?" says Lindsey.

Peter Finnigin, the recently appointed new area manager for the Anthony Nolan Trust, is determined to do everything he can to help Lindsey and two other unnamed North-East patients currently waiting for a bone marrow transplant.

"The best way to help people like Lindsey is to build up our data base of potential donors. That's what we are now trying to do in the region," he says.

Peter is keen to stress that the business of actually donating bone marrow or providing stem cells is not painful and donors should be back at work within a week or so. "I have spoken to many donors and, without exception, they have said they feel privileged that they have given someone the chance of life. They would do it again if they got the chance."

Lindsey puts on a brave face most of the time but she knows that her situation is deadly serious.

"I want to go to so many places...I would love to go to Paris," she says. "I also want to have kids and be able to tell them about all this."

* To join the Anthony Nolan Trust register ring 0901 8822234 or for information about fund raising ring Peter Finnigan on 0191-522 5600. The trust needs to raise £13m every year to continue its work. Apart from the abseil in Newcastle on September 28, the trust is also looking for teams to take part in a fancy dress fun run in Yarm on Sunday, September 14.