Being a stem cell courier
Whilst couriering stem cells internationally might sound glamorous, it often involves very early starts, late nights, lots of waiting around at airports, and overcoming all sorts of travel related issues to get the stem cells to the patient as quickly as possible.
For short-haul trips, we sometimes arrive too late to see much of the destination we’re collecting from. We can collect the cells and be heading back to the airport by 7.30 the next morning.
However, the two days it takes to freeze and condition the panels that go inside the insulated box we use to transport the stem cells means that for most long-haul destinations, we can use that time to recover from the outward journey, prepare for the journey home and, if we’re lucky, see some sights too.
I was delighted to be allocated a trip to collect stem cells from Honolulu, although it’s a very long way to go! My route was a 5,444-mile flight from London to Los Angeles, followed by a further 2,553-mile flight over the Pacific Ocean to the island of Oʻahu.
This was the first time Anthony Nolan had collected stem cells from Hawaii, so details such as flights and transport between the airport, accommodation and collection centre all had to be worked out from scratch beforehand.
My time in Hawaii
When I arrived in Los Angeles, the Customs and Border Protection Officer asked about the purpose of my visit. He was incredulous that anyone would travel so far to collect stem cells and asked how many different patients they would treat.
I remember thinking that if I’d told him that my fellow couriers and I travel to collect and deliver stem cells for more than a thousand individual patients each year — and what’s more, that we do it completely voluntarily — it might have been too much for him to take in!
In between arriving and collecting the stem cells, I managed to fit in a bus tour of the island, climb an extinct volcano and visit Pearl Harbor. Should we ever go there on holiday, that will save my wife from having to endure yet another Second World War site.
One thing I did notice during my trip was that Hawaiian shirts — or Aloha shirts, as they’re known locally — are everyday business wear, not just for barbecues! I felt quite drab dressed in my low-key, stone-coloured travel shirts.
Hawaii was quite an unusual destination to fly to. As it's so far west (158 degrees longitude), there's a minus ten-hour time difference. This meant that despite travelling for over twenty four hours, I left home on Friday and it was still Friday when I arrived in Honolulu. On the way back, I left Honolulu on Monday and by the time I landed in the UK, it was already Wednesday!
Why I volunteer
Many of Anthony Nolan’s volunteer couriers have a personal connection to the charity. Some have family members who have had a stem cell transplant, and some have even had one themselves.
My brother was diagnosed with leukaemia in the seventies, at the same time Shirley Nolan was trying to find a match for her son Anthony. Sadly, my brother and Anthony both passed away. But the outlook is so much better now, thanks to advances in medicine and more people joining the register every year.
I can’t turn back the clock to save my brother, but I like to think that with every stem cell bag I deliver, I’m doing what I can to level the score.
Richard
The thing I’d like to say to anyone considering joining the register is that patients receiving stem cell transplants also have parents and grandparents, siblings, spouses, children and grandchildren, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, cousins, and of course friends.
All of those people can be profoundly affected by losing someone they love, as I was as a child and still am today. So the impact made by every potential stem cell donor on the Anthony Nolan register goes far beyond the most obvious benefit of giving a patient another chance to live.
Whilst I’m prepared to travel to the other side of the world, please help limit my carbon footprint by encouraging as many people as you can here in the UK to join the Anthony Nolan Stem Cell Register.