Ella Pickover
SCHOOLGIRL has become the world's youngest stem cell donor. Victoria Rathmill (17) became the youngest donor last month after she was found to be a match to a patient suffering from blood cancer, it was announced yesterday.
The A-level pupil, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, signed up to Anthony Nolan bone marrow register in February when she was 16. In just a few months she was identified as a match to a patient and made a donation at the London Clinic in October.
A spokeswoman for the charity said Victoria's donation makes her the youngest ever person to provide stem cells to a non-relative. The charity's bone marrow register is just one of two in the world that accept under-18 donors.
Victoria, a pupil at All Hallows Catholic College in Macclesfield, joined the register after a family friend was diagnosed with leukaemia. "At first I was like: 'I'll join when I'm 18, I'm not going to make any difference', but then a friend of our family got ill and so I felt the need to join up," she said. "It was only a couple of weeks after I signed up that I told my mum. Anthony Nolan sent the spit kit out to me and she asked me what it was. Though she was taken aback a bit at first, she thought it was a nice thing to do, especially given our friend's experience. "After I signed up I just stopped thinking about it really. You just don't expect to get the phone call within six months of registering. "It's quite shocking to think I'm the youngest-ever - you're never the first to do anything nowadays, it's all been done already." Speaking about the donation process, she added: "It's just like giving blood really. I would do it again because it's not that difficult. It's just a couple of days out of your life to save somebody else's - and I got a free trip to London."
The teenager's mother Paula Rathmill said: "Victoria's always been headstrong and determined but it never really occurred to me to try and stop her from helping another person in their hour of need. It makes me very proud." "Yet even though she's strong, what she's doing takes courage and she's still only 17. "To others who go through this I would say look it up, get involved and then
encourage your child as much as you can. I personally feel you have to trust your children to make the right decisions."
Anthony Nolan chief executive Henny Braund said: "Victoria's historic donation is genuinely impressive. It shows both what a special young woman she is, and how teenagers can be sufficiently mature, caring and engaged with the world around them to help save an unwell stranger."
Earlier this year a Northern Ireland teenager, 13-year-old Sara Mhlanga from Newry, celebrated the five-year anniversary of the stem cell transplant that cured her leukaemia.