Shelley's Story — Australian Marrow Match

In 2019, Shelley was a fit, healthy, active mum of two teenagers and working at a primary school as an SSO, living in a small town near the Murray River in South Australia. She started experiencing some “funny symptoms” and decided to investigate. The doctor called her that evening to ask her to come in the next day and suggested she bring someone with her as a second pair of ears. Shelley says she remembers it very clearly, it was a Monday night and she was cooking a stir fry for her two kids. Suddenly, the next day, her husband and her were off to Adelaide to go to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for further testing. The details of her diagnosis and the gravity of the situation had not been clearly stated to her so they only expected to be there for a few nights, however, she was admitted straight away and informed she would have to be in hospital for several weeks. Shelley was placed in Room 13 in the cancer ward which was very confronting for her, as there was many very sick patients their going through treatment. She was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and three days later started chemotherapy, which meant she was in hospital for a month.

Overall, Shelley said she spent about 10 and a half months in Adelaide undergoing three rounds of chemotherapy, prior to undergoing a stem cell transplant. She and her family were assigned an amazing consultant from the Leukaemia Foundation who found them an apartment in Adelaide, near the hospital, in the 'Leukaemia Village'. Her husband stayed with her throughout her treatment and Shelley describes him as her rock throughout the whole process. While she was in Adelaide, her sister looked after her own two children and Shelley's two kids back in the country, but she still found time to visit Shelley in Adelaide and take on a carer’s role for her when needed. Her sister was the only family member who was able to get tested to check if she was a stem cell match, however, unfortunately she wasn’t.

Shelley likens the process of getting a stem cell transplant, to running a marathon for her life. She says that it can be gruelling, and it gets very difficult, even when you know that you are close to the finish, and as hard as it is, you know you have to keep going and enduring, as making it to the finish line is a huge achievement. Luckily a match was found for Shelley and her transplant was scheduled to occur in October of 2019, however, right before the transplant was meant to happen the donor went AWOL and was unable to donate. Amazingly for Shelley, another match was found and this person gave her another chance at life, on the 11th December 2019, she had her transplant. Shelley counts her blessings and feels grateful every day for her donor, who was a female in her 30’s, from Denmark. One day, Shelley would love to be in contact with her donor and eventually to be able to visit Denmark with her family, to meet this amazing person. As well as her incredible donor she considers the doctors and nurses at the Royal Adelaide to be her angels. She left hospital in mid-January 2020 and spent the next four months recovering in her apartment at the Leukaemia Village. Since her transplant she has been recovering, and had to spend a lot of that time in lockdown, as she was immunosuppressed. Shelley was able to return home at the end of April 2020, in her time at home she has thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her family and being a mum to her two kids. Shelley also loves gardening on her property, getting out into nature and is studying for an advanced certificate in meditation and mindfulness. The morning, before AMM spoke to her, she had even done a 10km hike!

We are so happy for Shelley and how amazingly well she is doing! Shelley is also passionate about raising awareness and helping spread the word about the need for new potential donors to register. Please register so you can potentially save someone’s life like someone saved Shelley’s.