All of Harry Simpson’s Christmases came at once when he rang the hospital bell to signal he was in remission from cancer, on December 28.
Not only was the Belfast man celebrating reaching a milestone he feared he might never see, he was doing so having met the woman of his dreams - who fate had brought to his hospital room.
So for Harry being diagnosed last March with a rare and deadly form of leukaemia, proved to have a positive side as without his cancer, he and Ciara Allen might never have got together. Now back at home he says, “Meeting Ciara has shown me that everything, even cancer, can have a positive side - if I hadn’t been ill, we wouldn’t have met”.
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Months earlier Harry, 27, a search and rescue worker, had been facing death without a stem cell transplant. Luckily after his sister Alex, 24, proved a match, he was on the road to recovery – and to true love. For when Alex visited her brother in hospital in July 2022, she took along her flat mate Ciara, 23, a cancer nurse – and like his sister’s stem cells, the couple were the perfect fit.
Harry says: “It was meant to be. I can’t picture not having Ciara in my life. She is my rock.”
Harry first started feeling unwell last February after a holiday with friends to Dublin for his birthday. He added: “On the morning I was going there, I was standing in the shower and noticed a couple of purple spots on my skin on my chest, but I didn’t really think much of it. Then when I came back, I was sent to Scotland for a week for winter training with work. Climbing mountains every day, I felt overly tired.”
Struggling to keep-up playing football and suffering with night sweats, he presumed burning the candle at both ends had finally got to him. When he started losing weight, Harry headed to his GP. Antibiotics did nothing so the GP ran blood tests - but by now Harry was deteriorating so fast he struggled to climb the stairs. After two weeks of hospital tests, doctors diagnosed early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - an uncommon and aggressive blood cancer, which had also developed into skin cancer.
Harry says: “It was a complete shock. They said the only hopeful cure was a stem cell transplant. I thought my days were numbered.” Each of his four sisters and his brother was tested and thankfully Alex, a nurse was a match. Harry cried when she rang to tell him the news. He added: “It was such a happy moment. Alex was going to give me a second chance at life.”
Before the transplant Harry had 19 weeks of treatment, including chemotherapy, more drugs and radiotherapy. In July Alex visited him in hospital - bringing Ciara with her. Straight away there was chemistry, as Harry thought his sister’s flatmate was lovely.
He says: “We started chatting as friends and by September we were ringing every couple of days.”
Alex went to London for the procedure to harvest 30 million of her stem cells. They were sent to Belfast and over two days in September, Harry received a transplant of 14 bags of cells. He went home after six weeks but was still very ill and had to be cared for by his dad. He says: “I was being sick five or six times a day, I couldn’t eat, I had no hair, no weight, I couldn’t stand up.”
During this gruelling recovery period, Harry grew even closer to Ciara, despite her being 150 miles away in Edinburgh. Harry adds: “We started talking every day and all I could think about was talking to her.”
As Harry slowly recovered, their bond strengthened. Being a cancer nurse, Ciara understood what was happening and supported Harry to help him understand too. He says: “Every day she would make me smile, which was hard to do. She motivated me to wake up or be more myself so I could text her.”
The pair tried to meet in November and December but both times Harry was too unwell. Then three days after Christmas, he got to ring the hospital bell to show his cancer was in remission. He says: “It was amazing - I cried happy tears. Then my sister Alex surprised me inside, whilst 15 of my friends were clapping me outside. I cried - I couldn’t contain myself.”
Finally, this January Harry and Ciara met up in Edinburgh for five magical days together. On the three-hour drive from the ferry port to the Scottish city, they chatted as if they had known each other for ever. Harry says: “I was still really sick but we went for dinner even though I couldn’t eat. But she made sure I was okay and supported me the whole time and didn’t make a big deal of it. I couldn’t do much but even just a small walk and a coffee was amazing.”
Since then the couple have visited each other whenever possible. And on his third visit Harry told Ciara he loved her. “She is everything to me,” he says, “I asked her to be my girlfriend in February in Edinburgh when going out for a meal.”
When Harry is well enough, the loved-up couple plan to holiday in Croatia and cruise around Barcelona, France and Greece. Harry also plans to build enough strength to run the New York marathon for Action Cancer next year. For now he is focussing on his treatments for graft - versus - host disease - which is when white blood cells in the donated stem cells attack the transplant recipient’s body cells. He adds: “I want to raise awareness to give people the same chance I have.”
The pair plan to move in together in Belfast later this year, and Harry is on track to return to work in September. He adds: “I really do believe positivity breeds positivity and I’m looking forward to the future. I feel incredibly grateful to my sister, to Ciara and for life.”
Ciara echoes this saying: “Everything happens for a reason and we were just meant to be together. Harry is such a positive person. He has made me more grounded and has taught me to appreciate everything. He means everything to me.”
Now Ciara is keen to make more people aware of blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan’s stem cell register. She explains: “If Harry’s sister hadn’t been a match, he wouldn’t be here now so it’s so important to join the register. You could save someone’s life and make another couple as happy as we are.”
Follow Harry’s journey on Instagram at @hw_simpson. For more information about Anthony Nolan go to anthonynolan.org.
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