Brother's Stem Cell Transplant Saves Dad's Life

0:00On April 22nd, a 46-year-old dad from Solford beat a rare blood cancer thanks to a stem cell transplant from his brother who flew in from the U.S. John Blackston collapsed at home in November 2022 and learned he had mixed phenotype acute leukemia with doctors saying he had just days to live due to sepsis 2. It's a bone marrow cancer that makes up less than 5% of leukemia cases. After rounds of chemo, John got his first transplant in April 2023 from a 21-year-old Israeli donor who was a perfect match. It worked at first, letting him go home, but last July the cancer returned after he felt short of breath on a 10-mile run. That's when he called his younger brother David, living in New York. David 42 had been a potential donor before but couldn't do to low iron levels. He'd fixed that with treatments and was ready. In October, he jetted to Manchester, shared pizza with John the night before and donated over six hours.

1:03David called it an out-of-body moment, watching his cells go into his brother. John's recovering strong now with tests showing 99.5% of his blood cells are from David. He's back running, hitting boxing classes and feeling normal again. Their family knows leukemia pain. They raised over 500,000 pounds for Manchester services through a charity their mom started. John sees the coming full circle and wants to raise awareness for this rare type.