A LEUKAEMIA sufferer has received the best present of all after learning that a life-saving transplant will take place on her birthday.

Val Anderton turns 53 in a few weeks, and is due to receive a bone marrow transplant from her younger sister on the day.

News of the transplant ends weeks of waiting for a suitable donor for Val, a page planner at the Kent Messenger Group’s headquarters at Larkfield, near Maidstone, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in January.

She said: “My sister and I had a close relationship anyway, but I do not know how to thank her for doing this for me.

“Some things are impossible to thank people for and I know underneath it all she knows how grateful I am.”

Val said that she counts herself incredibly lucky as she is one of eight siblings, which in theory gave her a one in two chance of finding a donor among family members.

But, in fact, the only suitable donor was her sister Joan, who is eight years her junior.

Val, who recently moved from Eccles, near Maidstone, to Rainham, said: “I thought I’d have a fighting chance of getting two donors from my brothers and sisters and the doctors treating me at Maidstone Hospital thought it was funny that they had to fill out eight potential donor forms. I don’t think they’d had to fill out so many for one person before.

“Having leukaemia has made me re-assess my life. You just concentrate on the present rather than the future.”

Val and Joan will enter King’s College hospital in London on August 28 for the treatment, which will mean Joan donating healthy stem cells from her bone marrow. These will then be implanted in place of Val’s leukaemic cells.

Joan, who is from Cheshire, said: “I didn’t think twice about agreeing to it. When we all went to get tested for matches I just knew it was going to be me. I wasn’t surprised at all when I got the call to say I was a perfect match.

“I couldn’t really give her a better birthday present.”

At present, 70 per cent of those needing bone marrow transplants fail to find a suitable donor, but Val is already in remission after chemotherapy and should recover fully.

To find out more about the donor scheme, visit www.blood.co.uk