Anthony Nolan Charity are carrying out a worldwide search to find a stem cell donor for a Cardiff University student diagnosed with leukaemia, who needs to find a match urgently.
Vithiya Alphons, 24, has acute myeloid leukaemia and has been told she needs a donation in the next two months. But because of her Sri Lankan background, the search is more complex as not many South Asian people are on donor registers. Miss Alphons was diagnosed with the aggressive form of blood cancer after falling ill just days after returning for her final year as an optometry student at Cardiff University.
She had secured a graduate job at Specsavers and said she was feeling positive about the future. But she started feeling unwell with severe sickness and a fever, while she had a pain in her leg, so she went to the doctor for tests. She underwent chemotherapy in Cardiff before being well enough to be transferred to a hospital in London, where she is from. After her third course of chemotherapy, she felt better and thought she had beaten her illness.
Doctors told Miss Alphons her best option was now a stem cell transplant from a donor, which is needed in the next two months.
Her brother Clime is only a 50% match and doctors have said her best chance of survival is a closer match from an unrelated donor.
Anthony Nolan is now searching the world's donor registers for someone whose tissue type matches Miss Alphons's. But the search is complicated by the fact not many people from South Asia are on the registers.
Miss Alphons and her family and friends are also using social media to campaign to raise awareness of the issue and urge people to help.
