Lisa shares her unique story of fighting through several rounds of chemotherapy and how cancer changed her outlook on life as a daughter, wife, mother, and friend. I learn the importance of blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants in treating leukemia.
To become a bone marrow donor visit: https://www.giftoflife.org/about/history
To become a blood donor in the US visit: https://www.redcross.org/ or search for local blood drives and sign up.
Lisa shares her unique story of fighting through several rounds of chemotherapy and how cancer changed her outlook on life as a daughter, wife, mother, and friend. I learn the importance of blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants in treating leukemia.
To become a bone marrow donor visit: https://www.giftoflife.org/about/history
To become a blood donor in the US visit: https://www.redcross.org/ or search for local blood drives and sign up.
Neva
00:00:01
Hey, welcome to alphabet soup. The podcast committed to bringing you info about cancer from medical professionals and stories from cancer patients to spread awareness and solidarity. Today we're joined by leukemia patient and survivor Lisa King, who runs an Instagram page, documenting her experiences after being diagnosed with AML last year during the pandemic, she shares her unique story about fighting the Kamia, the importance of blood donations and HTML matching, and more in the episode, let's meet Lisa King. Hey Lisa. So glad to have you on the show today. It's great how we can connect, even though we are many times in this part, and I'm looking forward to getting to know about you and really celebrating your progress through your cancer journey before we get started, I just got to mention your Instagram and I think it's great how you document and share your experiences through the platform. So I wanted to make sure to mention it. It's @expedition.bestlife for anyone who would like to check it out.
Lisa King
00:01:20
Thanks, Neva. Thanks for having me
Neva
00:01:24
Very excited. So anyway, you're a fighter and you've battled through ups and downs with leukemia. So what is the biggest lesson you have learned from your experiences?
Lisa King
00:01:38
Oh, I would say the biggest lesson sure. Has been that it can absolutely get anyone. I was very, very healthy before, at least five days a week in the gym eating mostly vegetarian diet at the time, I was really, really conscious of, you know, healthy eating and what I put on my body and in my body. And you know, I still still, so obviously I'm still very careful now, but it's, sometimes it doesn't matter what it is you do. It just happens. It doesn't need to be environmental factors. You can just cancer can affect absolutely anyone.
Neva
00:02:20
Wow. So will you take me back to when you were first diagnosed? Yep.
Lisa King
00:02:26
So it's actually coming up for a year. So on the 1st of March, 2021, I'd already been unwell for about noticeably for at least two months. I didn't feel right. I actually thought I was maybe anxious or depressed cause we were going through, we just lost our dad. So it was, which was very, very sudden. So we were really ready. It was a tough time. So I, I was just going through the motions of, of stress. So I was, my energy levels were getting worse and worse. I ended up with a migraine on my left side of the head, which lasted about six weeks before I was diagnosed. I had ringing in my left ear as well. And it just, all every time I Googled my symptoms, it came up with stress, you know, maybe it's stress, maybe it's anemia. So I was like, oh, maybe it is anemia.
Lisa King
00:03:25
Maybe I just need, you know, I need to take it easy a little bit and get some, some iron supplements. So I did start taking some iron supplements and they did make me feel better briefly. But then I started getting, I got tonsillitis, which no amount of what's called no amount of antibiotics was getting rid of at the time. Obviously it was also the height of the pandemic. So there wasn't really face to face appointments. It was just over the phone that the doctor just went over his prescription, just go and collect it somewhere. So it was quite difficult. And then I went on the 1st of March to take my kids to school, really out of breath had been out of breastfed for weeks. And I collapsed outside my, my little daughter's nursery after I dropped her off. So I was going to just go home and take it easy.
Lisa King
00:04:25
But my friends who were taking their kids to school, they were like, no, your nose is bleeding as well. You need to go and go and see a doctor. So I went to the emergency room and again, they were going to send me home. They were like, oh, maybe it's just this and that. And you need to just get in touch with your doctor and they can maybe work it out. But eventually, because I was so I was quite confused then as well, I was just getting, getting my words muddled up. I was just totally out of it. So then they took some blood and straight away, they were like, well, it's, it's this and you have to stay and you can't go home. We have to start treatment straight away. So I didn't just didn't get to see anyone else again for five weeks because there was no visitors in hospital. There was, I couldn't see my kids, like didn't say goodbye to the kids. My husband wasn't allowed to visit. So I started chemo pretty much straight away. Oh
Neva
00:05:21
Wow. So did they catch the cancer at an early stage?
Lisa King
00:05:27
So we've leukemia. It's quite difficult. It wasn't early, I'd had two mutations by then, like genetic sort of things that just progressed because I was probably, I'd probably develop leukemia about three months earlier, maybe about 10 weeks, but because of systemic, it's kind of, it's hard to tell, but I, they said I'd only had two weeks left to live if we didn't start treatment straight away. So that was cause originally I was like, well maybe I'll, I'll try some, you know, holistic approaches and see how I get on. They were like, if we don't start Kuma, now you'll be dead in two weeks. I was like, get the chemo and get it in. So yeah, it was so, so no, it wasn't an early catch for me, which didn't necessarily make it worse. It was still the same going to be the same treatment, but it just meant, they said that it's often the case with young people. When they get leukemia, they just keep going and going and going. They know something's wrong, but they can't put their finger on it. And then one day they just can't go on anymore. And that's, that's sort of what happened to me. So they said it's common for it to not be noticed until quite late,
Neva
00:06:43
If you were alone at the hospital, did that add to your stress or how you felt when the doctor confirmed you have leukemia?
Lisa King
00:06:52
It was hard. It was hardest not being able to, to, I mean, thank goodness there's FaceTime and all of those things. I felt a lot of, a lot of mother's guilt at the same time, not being there for the kids and them not knowing what's going on really. But I have to say, I slept a lot during that time because my body was so, so tired and my, my iron levels and everything was so low. The first thing they did, I think I had 17 different IVs in the first 24 hours. I got there because I was so unwell, they had two or three blood transfusions. I had loads of different types of antibiotics say, ah, just loads of stuff, loads and loads of tablets. I think I had 40 pills a day. I was there. It was really, they were, I mean, they were on it.
Lisa King
00:07:46
So I did a lot of sleeping in the first round. I did a lot of resting because I'd, you know, felt rubbish for so long. And I didn't sort of actually take care of myself. I just kept, kept going and going. So it was okay. I mean, it wasn't fun, but I kind of feel like it seems a bit like a bad dream now. I took it all quite well. I didn't sort of panic. And obviously you do think about, you know, your mortality and things like that, but I didn't, I knew it was going to be fine and I just kept telling myself it's going to be fine. So this is just a stage. And then, and it was fingers crossed.
Neva
00:08:32
Thank goodness. So we know that early symptoms of leukemia are like pale skin and swelling of your lymph nodes. Were those the same in your case? Or did those not really? Were those not really noticeable for you as
Lisa King
00:08:51
Absolutely awful? I looked horrible, but I thought it was winter. So I thought, well, this is obviously why I look like this. I'm not usually this of winter, but I looked bad. Like I was white as a ghost, big black circles around my eyes. And I started having lots of bruises as well, which I didn't at the time connect to anything. I just remember about three weeks before when it's hospice or saying to my husband, oh my goodness. Look at the size of this bros. And he was like, wow. You know, but, and one morning I woke up and I had a black eye and I was like, where's this black guy come from? And then I remembered that the previous nights I bumped my eyebrow on my son's bed frame. So that shouldn't have given me a black eye. But you know, that's it really, when your platelets are low, you do you bruise like a peach? Oh yeah. So I definitely, I was definitely pale. Other than that early symptoms, I also, I noticed this was about 10 weeks before, so this must've been at the very early stages. One of my fingers kept, kept going white. So there was like, no blood is going into one of my fingers, which isn't really a common symptom as such, but it's definitely the start of something going wrong.
Neva
01:10:19
Right. You're probably like what's up with my finger. Yeah. Yeah. So after your diagnosis and when you're admitted into the hospital that two weeks, what was it like every day, other than sleeping? Did you go through chemotherapy and how intense was it? And yeah,
Lisa King
01:10:42
So for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, which is what I had, you have to essentially use quite a high dosage chemotherapy twice a day. So you get four, usually the standard in the UK. Anyway, it's four sets of chemotherapy and or chemotherapy suppresses your immune system somewhat, but chemotherapy for leukemia is supposed to completely wipe out your immune system and bring your bone marrow production to zero. So it's, it brings, it basically resets the system because it's, it's not like a tumorous cancer, like most cancers it's systemic. So it has to have to completely reset your, your body's production. Essentially. Your bone marrow is production of stem cells. So my first round was 10 days. And in those 10 days I got 23 rounds of chemo. So one in the morning, two at night, then the next day it was just two. And then the following day three.
Lisa King
01:11:54
So during that time, like I said, I stepped through a lot of it, fortunately, because I could sort of not really notice a lot of the noise or things like that. I was sick a lot. I was, I was a sicky chemo patient, I have to say, but it wasn't as noticeable in the first round. So once your neutrophils, which is your job, the white blood cells, that fight infection, once they go down to zero, we then have to stay in hospital in isolation until those go back up, which takes about four weeks. So that's why it's each block you're in for at least four to five weeks.
Neva
01:12:37
So what do you have to be isolated during that time? Was that
Lisa King
01:12:41
Because we've got no immune system at all, so the cold will probably kill you. So you can't have any germs. You can't have any, anything you have to take. I think it was on six antibiotics every day. Just then just prophylactic antibiotics, just to make sure that you don't get an infection and you still end up with infections, you get Heckman mine. Most of the time I had one of those put in and they say it can ask for up to a year, but I had four or five times because they kept getting infected and I kept ending up in ICU and it was just horrible. There's gotta be a better way.
Lisa King
01:13:25
But yeah, so I kind of, I made it a bit of a project while I was in there to really practice mindfulness every day. I meditated a lot. I would love to say I ate good food. I ate absolute garbage, but I was in hospital or hospice or food. I don't know what it's like in America. I'm assuming it's similar. It's rubbish. So, and I couldn't couldn't eat anything that was brought in because I couldn't have any fresh fruits or fresh vegetables because everything has to be cooked at high temperatures when you have, when you've had this type of chemotherapy, because it could be bacteria on, it was just, it wasn't fun.
Neva
01:14:08
So when they got your levels, your levels back down to zero, then that four weeks is for it to kind of return to normal. Is that what it is?
Lisa King
01:14:20
Yes. So it doesn't return all the way to normal, but they let you out when it's a 0.5. So a healthy immune system should be above point at 2.0, but they let you out when it's 0.5, just because they don't want to keep you in forever. And then you go home. The first time I had a 12 day break in those 12 days, they take a bone marrow sample and check whether your in remission, because Ricky Rakia, you should really go into remission either straight away. And if it hasn't worked, then they will think about doing a bone marrow transplant or a stem cell transplant. But I did go into remission straight away. So that was fine. But then they still have to do an additional three rounds to make sure it stays away. So you don't relapse, but technically I've been in remission since, you know, since the first round of chemo.
Neva
01:15:19
So what would have made your experiences at the hospital? More enjoyable?
Lisa King
01:15:26
Well, but a food. Oh my goodness. But a food would have been amazing. I have to say the nurses were great. I had really good nurses and really good doctors. They were all very, very caring and yeah, it was, it was good. Although I didn't, I wouldn't have wanted to stay a single day longer obviously, but I was, I wasn't unhappy in hospital. I was, I was okay there. I obviously, we were in isolation and I had to have a room to myself as well, which is nice. So you can just, you know, you, you sort of bring all your nice things from home and make sure that you feel comfortable. So I wouldn't say there was anything that could've made it better because it was, it was okay. It wasn't grace for her better for,
Neva
01:16:21
Yeah. Do you think that leukemia affected your appetite at all? Or was it just the bad food that maybe made you?
Lisa King
01:16:31
No, I still, I mean, the chemo was always tough. The second round you get slightly less, so you get eight days instead of 10. But like I mentioned earlier, I was a very, very sicky patients. Like some people couldn't sort of control the nausea. I was sick probably 10 times a day easily, which you know, it wasn't great for my teeth. And it was hard being sick all the time. But again, once you, once you finished with the chemo, you're just, you're, you're, you're, you're tired, but you can sort of, you feel fed in or not normal, but you feel, at least you're not, at least you're not nauseous. I hate being nauseous. I can deal with being tired and you know, stuff like that. But being nauseous was definitely the hardest bit for me.
Neva
01:17:30
After you went into remission, did you also have to, did you have blood transfusions or bone marrow transplants?
Lisa King
01:17:39
Yeah. Yeah. So when, when you're, when you're neutropenic, like when your immune system's at zero, your bone, once your system has been reset, you don't produce anything. You don't put use red blood cells, white blood, nothing for about 14 days. So during that time I used to get probably one or two blood transfusions, every two to three days and a platelet transfusion, maybe every, maybe two or three times a week as well. So I got loads of transfusions, lots and lots. And then once you sort of, once your immune system, once your bone marrow kicks in again, then it slowly starts producing itself. And then once they're happy enough of your numbers, then they obviously let you go. But I had a lot of transfusions. I didn't need a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant, fortunately. But yeah, I think I had accounts that I think I had 47 transfusions. So a fair amount.
Neva
01:18:42
I think this is where anybody can jump into helping cancer patients, because if you are eligible for blood transfusions or to donate blood, then do you think that it's important that people, if they are eligible to consider it
Lisa King
01:19:00
Off such honestly you have no idea. You never think how much blood hospitals needs, like how, how important it actually is to, to, for them to have to have blood. Some days I had to have blood courted over from a different hospital because they didn't have my type. And it only happened a few times, but I've got very, are there are positive, are positive. Yeah. So that is, I think the most common one. And even then, you know, they were, they, they needed to occasionally actually courier over. So anyone who can donate blood, it's such an amazing thing to do. And I'm so, so grateful to all the people who have whose blood I was able to use because it saves lives. You know, it really, really does. And I would absolutely not be here if there wasn't, if that wasn't an option. So yeah. Anyone who can, who can do it, I know they prefer not necessarily prefer, but anyone can obviously donate blood if they're eligible. But my nurses said they sometimes prefer getting male blood because it's higher in iron or something along those lines. But absolutely anyone who can, who can spare a pints, please do.
Neva
02:20:33
I'm curious before you had cancer, did donating blood ever, did you ever consider donating blood or have you?
Lisa King
02:20:44
I did. Yeah. So does my husband, unfortunately now, well I've had chemotherapy. My blood is no longer of anyone's use. I actually I've started having to give blood every three weeks now because my iron levels higher because I've been getting lots of transfusions. So once my own other levels of things are better, like my neutrophils and all of those things, now that I'm back to like a decent, decent level, I now have to give blood every three weeks and they just Chuck it in the bin. And it's horrible
Neva
02:21:23
Is that the intersection, the vena section that you're, I saw you post that on your Instagram. So that was your first one, right?
Lisa King
02:21:32
It was, yeah. So my next one is next Thursday, first they're coming up. So just, it feels like such a waste, but you know, I suppose it's, it's contaminated, so I understand why they can't use it, but it just, if it seems like I've gotten so many, so many blood transfusions and now it's like the product of it, it's just getting chucked out. I don't think my levels are too high. I've not actually asked what my actual number is for the iron that they said, they don't think I'll need many of these, but one of my friends he's actually in Canada, he's already on his 11th one. So he, you know, sometimes you have to, you have to get a lot of these it's sort of a waste.
Neva
02:22:22
Oh yeah. I, I like that. We talked about this because there are donate blood posters everywhere. And I think a lot of people, including myself, I was guilty of this too, where like, it didn't really occur to us how important donating blood potentially is and how many lives it can save. So I think this entire journey and talking to you has really opened my eyes and made me realize how significant you can contribute, how significantly anyone can contribute to the cause. So that's great out of your entire journey, what was the hardest part for you?
Lisa King
02:23:13
And my third round, I was in hospital. I should have been in for four or five weeks, the usual, but I ended up being in for eight weeks because I had a couple of complications that you can sort of get, you know, when you've got no immune system, you can get strange little things. So I ended up with a swollen lymph nodes on my groin and because I had no immune system at all, it ended up turning into like an abscess. And I said, kept saying, I had horrible fever that wasn't going anywhere. And I kept saying to, to my team, I kept going, I think this is where it's coming from. I think, oh no, no, no, that will go away on its own. And it didn't, they ended up taking out my Heckman line cause they, my second Heckman line. So they thought that would be what it was and it didn't end up being it.
Lisa King
02:24:04
And I had, I think four or five different antibiotics every day I V and everything. And they know nothing worked. So eventually, eventually I couldn't even, I couldn't even stand because this abscess was, so it was like, it was, it was about this big was absolutely huge. And then suddenly it just sorry, but it just started leaking pass. And I was like, this needs to go. So that I had had to have emergency surgery. And literally the next day my fever was gone. I was like, I've been in this hospital for an extra four weeks just because you wouldn't listen. So those sort of things were annoying. And I did also spend some time in ICU and intensive care. That was, that was the scariest bit. But that there were, there were lots of days where I thought I might die today. So it's, you know, from whatever complication was happening at the time, you know, when you've got your blood pressure is so low that they have to put you on medication for it, or when your fever is, I don't know what the Fahrenheit system is, but 43 that's I think about 108.
Lisa King
02:25:17
So, you know, it's yeah, I was some days it was really, really, really bad, but, but then you find at the time you think I'm never going to get better, but then you're better. And you've sort of forgot. What about
Neva
02:25:32
At those times, how did you get through it? Did you, or how did you react initially, initially? Did you contact your family or
Lisa King
02:25:42
On the days when I was that bad, I couldn't couldn't speak really. Yeah. I would speak when I could, obviously to my husband and my, my mother and my sister. But on those days, you just, you just want to hide under a, under a blanket and hope that the next day is better. It's quite, it's hard because I'm usually a very, very positive person. Like I do my affirmations and my meditations and, you know, I'm, I'm very good, very glass, half full, you know, but when you're feeling like that, it's really, really hard to stay positive. And then everyone comes in and says, you need to stay positive. And it makes it worse. You're like, I know, but you know, it's, it's, it's definitely, it had some sorority, some really hard days, but you just, sometimes you just have to pull the blanket over your head and wait for tomorrow to come.
Neva
02:26:46
You mentioned earlier a mom's guilt. And how do you think your cancer journey has impacted your kids?
Lisa King
02:26:57
Well, my son, he has a little boy in his class and the little, his sister had leukemia about three years ago now. So he, children don't usually know when you, when you say cancer, they don't really know what it's going to, how it's going to be, but he's straight away. When, when we told him he was like, oh, so have you got what Addison had? And I said, yes. And he said, oh, so you're going to be tired. And your hair's going to fall out and all of that. And I'm like, exactly. So he already knew which was, which was actually, which made it a lot easier. Whereas Layla, she, she was only four and she has become a bit more clingy. She used to be very, you know, she's still very outgoing, but she used to enjoy steep overs that, you know, at families and at other family members and things like that.
Lisa King
02:27:53
And now she, she would rather stay with me, which is fair enough. Cause I was, I was away 24 weeks and so tall. So I was away a lot. They've actually taken it. They've taken it. Well, I have to say my husband's been amazing and his mum has been amazing. My mum and sister are in London. So they've, they came up lots of times during, during my treatment. But you know, to spend time with the kids and everything, but my husband and my mother-in-law have been incredible. They've really, the kids are still very well-rounded for not affected them as much as it could have done.
Neva
02:28:34
Well, I'm so happy that you've had a good support team throughout this whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. So are you, you're in remission and are you, how many rounds of chemotherapy have you gone through
Lisa King
02:28:49
Four rounds? So two rounds where the first two where the two different types of chemo, one of them only got three, lots of like, put it, put it in your thing with a little syringe. And that was the worst one it's called done Rubinson and they call it the red devil. Cause it's absolutely horrible. So that was awful. And then the last two rounds, you get just the same stuff you had in the, in the normal bags, which is called cytarabine, but you get that in high dosage. So you get it five times what you would usually take it at. You only get it, I think six or eight times. So I'd done, but all in all, I'd done four rounds, four rounds of chemotherapy, four rounds of hospital stays. It used to be six in the UK, but I said to my doctors on the last round, I said, if I would have to come back here, you would need to go and find me like, there is not a way I would just come back out of my own free. Will they actually doing trials currently to see where the three rounds would be sufficient? Because they think three rounds is probably as good as four, but the trials aren't finished yet. So unfortunately I had to do four, but you know, it's one of those things.
Neva
03:30:11
What would the benefits of going more times be just to make sure that your immune system is functioning properly. Yeah.
Lisa King
03:30:18
It's more to make sure that you stay in remission. So it's more like for longterm effect. So if I'd only done one round, I would have been in remission, but the likelihood of me relapsing would have been much, much higher. Two rounds would lower the risk three rounds again. So that's why they used to do six, but they know now that it's just as good to do four and now they're thinking it's actually just as good to do three. So hopefully it is because, you know, I could have avoided a lot of, of, well, one ICU you stay for a star. Had I not done the fourth round? Cause that was the last time I see him.
Neva
03:31:03
Well, it's great that they're doing those clinical trials. I, I think in the future, that's what I want to do is go into oncology and participate or operate in clinical trials because I think that's how people really improve treatment and advanced the advanced treatment. That's great. Ultimately has, has cancer defined your life?
Lisa King
03:31:30
I wouldn't say it's defined my life, but it's definitely changed my outlook on some things I used to do a lot of things that I probably didn't really need to do. I mean, my husband and I, we have our own company, so we're fortunate that we can work flexibly. We don't have to, you know, we don't have an employer or anything like that, but I used to would just do everything ourselves. So we, we, we buy and renovate properties and things like that. And we used to do everything is to, you know, get up super early and do all the flooring and all the painting and all the running around. And we, the kids used to spend a lot of time with his mom. Whereas now I'm like none of that's important. I would much rather, you know, spend more time at home with my kids, do things that are fun.
Lisa King
03:32:30
And for instance, when you're looking to, to, to book a little holiday or something, you're not like, oh, I want to know, just do it. You know? So my outlook has changed. My outlook has changed to for the more positive. I just think I need to do things that bring me joy instead of not bringing me money. So I think that's, that's definitely, definitely changed me in that respect, but I wouldn't say cancer defines me. I feel like I don't resent the, the cancer. I actually feel like it was a very welcome eye opener instead of something to be upset and resentful about. I look at it, not like a gift, but definitely something that is going to improve my life long term instead of, you know, ruining it.
Neva
03:33:27
That reminded me of, I interviewed a nurse in pediatric hematology and oncology in episode two. And she said that her biggest message would be to encourage people that there is life beyond cancer and to really provide realistic advice or provide realistic outlook, but also know that there is hope and there's life beyond cancer.
Lisa King
03:33:54
Sure. It's a hundred percent. Yeah, definitely. I I'm still on, I've got to a genetic mutations. So obviously even if you've got the same cancer, you might have different genetic things going on in the background that can affect your outcome. I've got two mutations. One of them is called NPM one, which is something that either goes away after a couple of rounds of chemo or it doesn't, if it sticks around, then you have to have a bone marrow transplant. If it goes away, then the likelihood of it staying away is pretty good. So mine went away fortunately and I have another mutation poured FLT three, and I get medication for that, which is a type of chemo tablet. It smells horrible. It tastes horrible. The tablets are huge. And I have to take that every day, twice a day for 12 months. Again, it's to keep a lid on this mutation, but it's a very new drug.
Lisa King
03:35:04
So it's only been going in the trials for a couple of years. So I'm kind of a little bit anxious about the longterm effects to taking chemo through my digestive system and all those things. But it's one of those things that I'm just going to have to do. So I'm technically, although I am in remission, I'm not finished with treatment. I'm just on maintenance chemo essentially, but I'm doing really well. Like all of my doctors are very, very happy or my numbers are good back in the gym. I'm eating well. You know, I just, I feel like it's like a reminder every day that I obviously take, take these tablets, but I feel like my life has gone fairly back to normal.
Neva
03:35:52
That's great. You also look great. So I'm so happy. Do you have a favorite quote that you'd like to share?
Lisa King
03:36:04
I don't have a favorite quote off the top of my head, but I would definitely probably choose one probably competent says the day, this day, you know, every day I'm sure, probably does people have said this, but it really cancer really, really brings that home that you have to just live every day. I mean, especially in these uncertain times, COVID was enough to, to handle and now we've got that whole situation going on. It's just, you can have to make every day count because you just don't know
Neva
03:36:41
That's screen.
Lisa King
03:36:43
Yeah.
Neva
03:36:44
Thank you for coming onto the show today and sharing who you are and about your journey. And I hope everything continues to do well with you.
Lisa King
03:36:54
Thank you. It's really lovely. And one last thing I would love to say, I know you mentioned the blood donor register idea. If anyone is able to and willing there is also a bone marrow donor register. I did sign up to that years before I was diagnosed with, with leukemia, but that is also an amazing thing to sign up to. I don't know what it is in the U S in the UK. We have one called Antony Nolan, and I think the blood cancer foundation, but they basically, you sign up to it. They usually send you like a little sample pack and you, I think you put a little bit of saliva in and that can help. It usually goes on a worldwide database and someone, you know, from somewhere in the world could, you would never meet them or anything like that, but should you match up with someone you would then go through a process of seeing if you, if you're still willing and then they would come and take some of your stem cells just out of your, it would be like a bone marrow biopsy, which I've done many of. So it's, if anyone is willing to do that, that's also really, really, really amazing help. We had a little girl in the UK last year and she died of AML. She was, she was only one year old and that was all over the media. And we had a lot of signups then, which was great. It's just, it could, it could save a child's life because leukemia is obviously one of the, one of the cancers that affects children, you know? So yeah, if anyone, anyone is willing, that would be great.
Neva
03:38:44
Sounds good. I will put a link in the episode description for that. And thank you again for coming today. I had a great time.
Lisa King
03:38:52
Thanks Neva. I've had a lovely time.
Neva
03:39:07
If you enjoyed today's episode, please feel free to leave a rating and share the show with your friends and family. Also make sure to check out the episode description for more information on blood and bone marrow donations. This is your host, Neva HiTA John, and thanks for listening.