“MY TRANSPLANT TURNED ME INTO A GOLD MEDALLIST”

Melissa Fehr has surviv ed a r are disorder to win six gold medals at the W orld Transplant Games and set up her o wn business

“MY TRANSPLANT TURNED ME INTO A GOLD MEDALLIST”

Melissa Fehr has surviv ed a r are disorder to win six gold medals at the W orld Transplant Games and set up her o wn business

WORDS: LISA JACKSON

Iwas in the best shape of my life and had recently become engaged, when my whole world fell apart,” says Melissa Fehr, 37, from London. “I’d been diagnosed with a bone-marrow disorder at the age of five but, after undergoing a very risky and experimental treatment with an 80 per cent mortality rate in Pennsylvania, where I’m originally from, I thought I was cured for life.

“Only a few close friends heard me occasionally say, ‘Oh yeah, I almost died when I was a kid’. But it wasn’t really part of my life any more. All that changed in 2008, when I suddenly felt very sluggish on the 10K runs I was doing three times a week. I also noticed bleeding in the whites of my eyes.”

Melissa was told her bone marrow was failing. “I had a super-low blood count and, within the space of a few months, needed four blood transfusions each week just to stay alive.” Anthony Nolan, a bone-marrowdonor database charity, sent out a global appeal and found an anonymous bonemarrow donor in America who saved her life with an emergency transplant in July 2009.