A CANCER sufferer has appealed for more people to join the bone marrow register as she desperately attempts to find a match that will allow her to recover and be reunited with her young children.
Fiona Hart has been torn apart from her two young children since she was diagnosed with the EBV lymphoma T4 killer cell, a rare form of blood cancer, before Christmas.
Mrs Hart, from Bowmore on Islay, has left Honor, five months, and Jacob, two, in the care of their grandparents on the island as she undergoes regular treatment at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital.
The psychiatric nurse needs chemotherapy every second day, and as a result missed Honor's first Christmas.
Mrs Hart, 31, said: "When I see them, every month, I see massive changes in the kids.
"Jacob is talking a lot more now and is a wee boy now, rather than a baby, and Honor, I haven't really seen much of her at all. She is turning into a big baby, rather than the tiny thing that she was.
"I always wanted a family and now that is me got them and I just want to get back to normality, with them shouting at each other.
"It's just a waiting game now, to see how I get on with donors. I just need someone to come forward."
Mrs Hart initially thought she had hay fever when she first fell ill a year ago but following several months of tests, doctors revealed she had a cancer which only one in five people are diagnosed with in the UK every year.
She said: "I was devastated when I got the diagnosis, I didn't know how to feel, I was just numb." Mrs Hart was flown from Islay to Glasgow where she underwent a battery of tests that failed to show up anything.
She added: "That was because it is such a rare cancer, one in a million, only five people get it in Britain a year."
Mrs Hart said she lost a 'fair amount' of weight and contracted septicemia. When she was later tested, the mother of two was told she had three different types of bacteria growing inside her body. Three months after giving birth, she had a biopsy which revealed the cell cancer.
Her husband Simon, 40, is urging as many people as possible to join the bone marrow register.
International charity Delete Blood Cancer accepts donors up to the age of 55, while anyone from 16-30 can sign up to the Anthony Nolan register at www.anthonynolan.org.
The firefighter said: "There are only half a million donors in Britain which is not a lot, so I am encouraging everyone to sign up.
"They might not be any help to Fiona but they could help someone else."
Amy Bartlett, Anthony Nolan's Regional Register Development Manager in Scotland, said: "What Fiona and her family are going through at the moment is heartbreaking - but somewhere out there, there's a potential lifesaver who could help bring this family back together by donating their stem cells."
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