Last updated at 12:46, Friday, 29 June 2012

A 55-year-old man has just returned from his 10th anniversary trip to meet the woman whose life he saved by donating bone marrow.

Alan Graham with Sabine Stix and wife Sue

Alan Graham, from Bridekirk, donated twice to Sabine Stix, from Germany, in 2002.

Alan and his wife Sue put their names on the bone marrow donor register of the Anthony Nolan Trust in 1987.

He said he had almost forgotten about it until he got a letter in 2002 saying he was a close match for someone in need of a transplant. After blood tests, he was notified that he was an exact match with an anonymous recipient and went ahead with the operation.

Despite writing to Sabine after the operation, via the trust, he did not know her identity for two years because of an anonymity clause.

In May 2006 Alan and Sue, 56, made their first emotional journey to Munich to meet Sabine, now 36, and her family.

He said: “On the first night we met her in a hotel and it was a very emotional time.

“The next day we met her mother and she just ran towards us, flung her arms around me in floods of tears and in German said thanks for saving her daughter’s life.

“It was probably more emotional meeting her mother because as parents ourselves we understood what it really meant.

Six months after the initial donation, Alan received a letter saying that Sabine had contracted acute leukaemia for the second time and encephalitis.

Doctors gave her a slim chance of survival and Alan donated more stem cells. Sabine made a full recovery.

The pair now email each other at least once a week and take turns to visit each other every year.

Alan returned from Germany three weeks ago from their 10th anniversary visit.

He said: “It is good to have seen Sabine get her life back on track and we are now part of her family. It feels absolutely fantastic.

“I was happy knowing I had given someone the chance of a second life but for her to survive and then get to know her and her family and get on together is beyond belief.

“I just feel so privileged that I have been able to help them.”

Alan said he hoped his story would raise awareness of bone marrow donations and more people would sign up. He said the after effects of the operation were flu-like symptoms which lasted for about a week.

He added: “I know that a lot of people choose not to know who the bone marrow goes to for whatever reason.

“However, for me it was a nice set of circumstances that came out of something so awful.”

First published at 11:30, Friday, 29 June 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk