A Leeds woman was diagnosed with leukaemia after she started noticing bruises on her arms and legs.
Emily Land, 21, went to see her GP after she started finding the bruises. She was sent to St James' Hospital in October 2021 for blood tests and was told that very day that she had acute myeloid leukaemia - cancer of the white blood cells.
Emily, a student, had four rounds of chemotherapy, and was given the all clear in July 2022 - but only six weeks later she relapsed. She was told in August that she would need a bone marrow transplant to get rid of her leukaemia.
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Thankfully, a match was found for Emily just three months after she was placed on the Anthony Nolan transplant register. A stranger in the Netherlands was able to donate bone marrow to her - and she is now on the road to recovery.
Emily said: "I was in shock when I was told I had cancer, I didn't realise what I was being told. It was a case of being shown a room and saying 'here is your room for the night you are staying in'.
"It was different for my mum, she knew the severity of the situation. I didn't take anything from that whole time. When I got told I had relapsed it was worse because I didn't know what to expect with the transplant.
"It didn't feel real at all. Now I am cancer-free, I am going to counselling to overcome what I have been through.
"There is a lot of trauma - this is something a lot of people my age haven't been through."
She added: "I went one morning for the blood test, came home and went about my day. Around 5pm I got a call from the hospital, telling me that I needed to go in for more blood tests.
"I didn't think anything of it but by the next day we knew I was diagnosed and in for a month."
Emily found out she had relapsed after noticing more bruises covering her body again. Her mum Kirstie Plenderleith, 53, has been supporting her through the ordeal.
Kirstie, a bank worker, said: "It was horrific, my whole world fell apart. We got a phone call one morning, the consultant phoned me and asked for Emily.
"They told me how cancer had come back, and I went upstairs to tell her. The medical team came around to the house to collect Emily and take her to the hospital.
"The second diagnosis was 100 times worse than the first one."
Emily had to start chemotherapy again last September, and also caught pneumonia twice and had sepsis three times. Her younger sister Millie was tested immediately to see if she was a match, but unfortunately she wasn't.
The match, a 25-year-old Dutch woman, was finally found in November, and Emily's transplant took place in December 2022. It took place over two days and involved a transfusion of her damaged blood cells.
Kirstie said: "It was bizarre really. We knew that we needed a match, but we had no idea how Anthony Nolan worked or anything like that. We just thought that we would get people signed up ourselves.
"A lot of my friends took it upon themselves to go everywhere and get people signed up. We were at Leeds train station every Saturday getting people signed up, we went to Elland Road and stood outside colleges.
"We were just trying to get as many people as possible to sign up."
Emily said: "The recovery was tough, that was the hardest thing. I had restarted the gym, I had been walking and for me to not even be able to have a shower or walk to the bathroom without being out of breath or needing help was frustrating.
"The doctors were telling me I would be really tired, and I wouldn't want to be doing anything, but I didn't expect it to be so bad. When I came home, I could hardly walk up the stairs.
"I think I have blocked out a lot of what happened, there is a lot of trauma there. I have made some amazing friends on the cancer ward and that is a blessing. Now I am cancer-free."
Emily has to wait two years until she can potentially meet her donor. She said she should love to meet the woman who saved her life, saying she 'doesn't have the words to thank her'.
Kirstie added: "It was the worst thing ever. I would swap places with her in a heartbeat. Nobody should see their child go through that.
"It had made our relationship closer, spending five weeks together in one room. What 21-year-old would want that?
"I don't think anybody should go through this alone."
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