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Is this cancer cure for mum?
8/12/2011 Gilly Jenkins and huband Paul at ther Berkhamsted home.
A DATE has been set for the stem cell transplant that could save the life of a mum-of-two.
Gilly Jenkins, 43, of Hunters Park, Berkhamsted, has had blood cancer for a year-and-a-half.
She has had four rounds of chemotherapy – but became so weak that she now needs someone else’s stem cells to help her fight the illness.
They will be injected into her on Wednesday, March 7.
But husband Paul, 51, said: “She will have someone else’s immune system in her body and there is a possibility that it will start to attack her.
“If you were to pick up a flu virus, your body says, ‘Hang on. This virus is not part of us,’ and fights it off.
“The possibility when Gilly has somebody else’s stem cells is they might see her body and say, ‘Hold on, that’s not a part of us,’ and start attacking her.
“Gilly’s immune system could start attacking the cells – called donor rejection – but she has become so frail that this is unlikely.”
Gilly will have to spend eight days in the hospital of University College London before her transplant, and stay there for at least six weeks afterwards.
It will take her a year to recover completely, and when she does, she will have a new DNA and blood group.
Paul said: “We view Gilly’s treatment as a series of steps that we need to go through. We never get too excited about the next one.
“It just means she’s going to have another form of treatment that’s likely to make her ill before it makes her better. We are pleased to be reaching another stage in her eventual cure – but it’s no walk in the park.”
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Monday 28 May 2012
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