Family of Whitby's Evie Hodgson look back on past year post-transplant
The nine-year-old had a bone marrow transplant just over a year ago
It has been just over a year since a girl from Whitby had a transplant to save her life.
Nine-year-old Evie Hodgson was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease, in May 2020. But thanks to a stem cell donor she had a bone marrow transplant last year.
Her mum, Tina, said:
"I can honestly say it's been a fantastic year seeing Evie get better and get stronger every week, every month that's passed. When you go through something like what we have as a family you really appreciate life and experiences.
"Although Covid hasn't helped the situation because we haven't been able to do everything we've wanted to do but we've definitely ticked off a lot of Evie's wishlist; so we went to London, we've been up to Scotland, she's been to a football match and we've just had so many lovely experiences and made memories.
"Although at the time the transplant was stressful and worrying, it was also the highlight of last year because it was what was going to make her better. Another highlight was seeing Evie on stage at the 'Someone Like Evie' concert, she was in her element singing her little heart out.
"We want to do experiences. It's not about materialistic things, it's about experiences and doing things new, doing things we haven't done before. We're definitely, hopefully, going on a lovely summer holiday and another thing that we'd really like to do is try skiing.
"If you haven't already please, please join the stem cell register. It's absolutely free. The swab kits are free and you don't lose anything by donating your stem cells, your body reproduces the stem cells that you donate but it literally saves someone's life."
You can register via the Anthony Nolan website or the DKMS website.