When 19-year-old Natassa Adamou from Anerley was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in December 2024, her world—and that of her family—changed in an instant. Doctors told her that a stem cell transplant was her only hope for survival. What followed was a whirlwind of hospital visits, uncertainty, and a race against time to find a donor. But Natassa and her sister Sofia didn’t just wait and hope—they took action, launching the #NatassasMissionToRemission campaign to raise awareness about the life-saving potential of stem cell donation, especially among people of Greek Cypriot heritage.
This September, as Blood Cancer Awareness Month unfolds, their mission has drawn support from Labour MP Liam Conlon. According to local news reports, Mr. Conlon was moved by the sisters’ story and their determination to help not only Natassa but countless others still searching for a match. “What really struck me was how these two remarkable sisters were not only searching for a stem cell donor for Natassa, but are determined to raise awareness of the issue to help others,” Conlon said. “That kindness and courage really sums up who Natassa and Sofia are as people – I know their family is incredibly proud of them, and our wider community is too.”
Natassa’s story has a hopeful turn. With the help of stem cell transplant charity Anthony Nolan, a matching donor was found, and in June 2025, she received her transplant. While her recovery is ongoing, her journey is already inspiring others to join the donor register and support families facing similar challenges. As Sofia Adamou put it, “We are so grateful to everyone who signed up to the stem cell register and to everyone who shared Natassa’s appeal online. We’re not stopping here; there are so many families out there waiting for a match so I will continue my campaign to get as many people onto the register as possible so that we can give more people a chance at life.”
The Adamou sisters’ advocacy comes at a pivotal moment for stem cell donation in the UK. In September 2025, the country’s first stem cell collection centre dedicated strictly to transplants opened its doors at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC). As reported by the BBC, the Anthony Nolan Cell Collection Centre is set to create 1,300 new donation slots each year, addressing what the charity calls a “longstanding global shortage of cell collection facilities.” The centre, run by Anthony Nolan in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Nottingham Clinical Research Facility, aims to make the donation process more efficient and accessible for both donors and recipients.
For donors like Jordan, a 28-year-old Londoner, the experience is both simple and profound. Nine years after signing up at a university freshers’ fair, Jordan was called upon to donate. “I am really happy because today I could save someone’s life,” he told the BBC. The donation process, as explained by Nicola Alderson, Anthony Nolan’s chief operating officer, involves being connected to a machine via needles in both arms. “The blood goes through the machine which takes out the stem cells and puts the rest of the blood back through,” Alderson said. The entire procedure typically takes about five hours, and once collected, the stem cells are usually transplanted into the recipient within 72 hours.
The need for timely transplants is urgent. According to Anthony Nolan’s own data, in 2022-23, only one-fifth of donors on the UK registry were able to donate on the date requested by the patient’s medical team, largely due to capacity issues. Delays can have irreversible impacts on a patient’s mental and physical health, sometimes leaving them in life-threatening conditions. The new centre is expected to significantly reduce such delays, offering hope to more patients in need.
Funding for the Nottingham centre was bolstered by a £3.7 million contribution from Omaze, raised through a house prize draw in June 2025. This financial boost is expected to fund the centre’s work for about 18 months. Beyond increasing donation capacity, the centre will also open doors for new research, including projects exploring the use of stem cells to treat liver disease, as highlighted by Kathryn Fairbrother, director of clinical operations for research and innovation at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The impact of these developments is already being felt by patients like Daniel Chapman, a 31-year-old from Holbeach. Diagnosed with aplastic anaemia—a rare and potentially fatal condition—in April 2025, Daniel spent most of the next five months in hospitals in Nottingham and Boston Pilgrim. Determined to help others, he organized “Daniel’s Day Of Donation” across several towns, resulting in 50 new people being swabbed and added to the DKMS stem cell register. On September 24, Daniel received the news he’d been desperately hoping for: a match had been found through the Anthony Nolan register. His transplant is scheduled for October 15, 2025, from a 29-year-old male donor with a matching medical history and blood type.
“What do you say to someone who has literally, via a swab, saved your life?” Daniel reflected. “They probably don’t think it is anything much—to me that swab and that transplant ultimately means everything.” Like the Adamou sisters, Daniel is committed to raising awareness. “Just seven per cent are on the register,” he noted. “The awareness has really picked up and I want to do more to get some change.”
While the stories of Natassa, Jordan, and Daniel are deeply personal, they highlight a broader truth: stem cell transplants are a life-saving treatment for thousands of patients with blood cancers and disorders each year. Stem cells, produced by bone marrow, can develop into different types of blood cells and replace damaged ones in patients. Yet, the chance of being matched from the UK-wide Anthony Nolan register is just one in 800 within the first five years of joining, underscoring the need for more donors—especially those aged 16 to 30, who can remain on the register until age 61.
Anthony Nolan coordinates over 1,000 UK transplants annually and sends cells abroad to about 300 patients. The cost of adding each new potential donor to the register is £40, covering recruitment, sample collection, and tissue type analysis. For those unable to register as donors, financial support remains crucial to sustaining and expanding these life-saving efforts.
As Yasmin Sheikh, head of policy and public affairs at Anthony Nolan, emphasized, “It’s fantastic to see Natassa’s local MP being so supportive of Natassa and Sofia’s campaign to get more people to join the stem cell donor register. Every amazing young person who joins the register could go on to be a lifesaving match for someone like Natassa in the future.”
The message from patients, donors, and advocates alike is clear: registering as a stem cell donor is an act of extraordinary kindness, one that can mean the difference between life and death for someone in need. As more people sign up and awareness grows, the hope is that stories like Natassa’s and Daniel’s become less about beating the odds and more about a community coming together to save lives.
