Stem Cell News Blog

A grandmother has become the oldest person ever to donate stem cells – to save her younger brother’s life. Despite being too old under medical guidelines Erica Henderson, 75, was allowed to undergo the procedure to help leukaemia sufferer Paul Hallowes. High dose chemotherapy had impaired his body’s ability to produce blood cells, and he would have died without stem cell therapy.

Despite him having three children and five grandchildren, a suitable donor could not be found.Doctors searched the national database of 600,000 blood donors but even then they were unable to find a match for his O-negative blood group.Mr Hallowes, 69, was told he had just two years to live until his sister insisted she be tested and doctors discovered she was a ‘perfect match’.

Medical rules, however, state that the life-saving cells can only be donated by people up to the age of 70.But doctors at Royal Marsden Hospital in London passed Mrs Henderson as ‘100 per cent fit’. The transfer took place at the hospital in October and two weeks ago Paul was told he is now in remission.Doctors say Mrs Henderson, of Westward Ho! in Devon, has made medical history as the world’s oldest ever stem cell donor.The grandmother-of-two said: ‘We tested the whole family and I was the only one who was an exact match.

‘Paul had been given two years to live. Then they found I was a perfect match and it was just a question of whether I was well enough because of my age to donate the stem cells.‘The tests were very stringent, a bit like undergoing a full body MOT. When the doctors came back to us they said I was 100 per cent fit and gave us the go ahead.‘My brother had been extremely ill for a long time but we have just been told he is in remission which is amazing.