Erin's Story

In Aug 2010 we discovered Erin was constantly developing unexplained bruises. We originally thought that as our 6 year old was a busy playful girl and always on the go that was why she was getting them.

However we soon noticed these were happening more & more often so we took her to the GP. They wanted to do a blood test and said they would be in touch in a few days. A few hours later we had a call from the GP to say Erins bloods had come back abnormal & wanted us to go to hospital the next day.

After numerous tests & bone marrow biopsies Erin was diagnosed in September 2010 with Aplastic anaemia. As Erin didn’t have a sibling bone-marrow match they wanted to try a immunosuppressive therapy which lasted three weeks.

Erin was kept alive by blood transfusions. We had to wait until January 2011 to find out if the treatment had worked but unfortunately there was no response. The only treatment left was an unrelated bone marrow transplant.

When they found a match she had chemo to kill any bad cells before they could transplant the new cells. She never once complained & always had a smile on her face. She had this March in 2011 which proved successful. A few months later Erin was well and was able to go back to school in September.

Erin carried on living an amazing & fun life. In 2014 Erin welcomed her sister Eva. Being an 11 year old girl she was amazing with Eva and as Eva got older they were best of friends.

Erin got through school and even competed a health & social qualification at college.

Unfortunately in 2022 Erin showed signs her bone marrow was failing & after repeating all the tests we got the news we never imagined we would hear again. Erin had relapsed. As a second transplant would involve a lot more risks, intense chemo & radiotherapy they decided they would contact her original donor for a Top up of his bone marrow (as this would mean she wouldnt have to have any conditioning therapy) thankfully he agreed to donate again & in 2023 she was given the top up. In the mean time she was again reliant on blood transfusions numerous time a week to keep her alive. Within weeks of the top up her bone marrow was working again. Another huge sigh of relief.

Unfortunately the new cells only lasted 9 months. The last & final option was a second bone marrow transplant but first they had to find her a new match. Thankfully it didn’t take long. She started high dose chemo & radiotherapy & received a second bone marrow transplant from a German donor in June 2024 which quickly showed great success. Erin came home in September and apart from the weekly hospital visits & blood tests we started to look forward to the future again & having our happy girl back.

The happiness didn’t last long & unfortunately at Christmas she developed a post transplant infection & pneumocystis pneumonia. She was admitted to intensive care on boxing day 2024 and lost her fight on 8th January this year she was 20 years old.

Thank you to BSF for this much needed break