Cancer sufferer: My miracle brother gave me gift of life

Lynne Hall, aged 48, says she would not have survived to see 2013 had it not been for her brother Ian Currie. Diagnosed with leukaemia just before Christmas 2010, the mother-of-one was told she had just six months to live.

Doctors told her the best chance of a suitable match would be from a sibling.

Of her two brothers and two sisters, her youngest brother Ian, from Rugeley, was a match.

But even more remarkable is that he was a miracle baby – born six years after their mother Jenny was sterilised. Lynne, of Windsor Close, Rugeley, today spoke about her illness to raise awareness among others who may not know they have the disease.

She changed from a sporty woman to someone who could hardly walk, but doctors initially put it down to asthma. Despite visits to GPs, Lynne, a performance officer for Staffordshire County Council, was never given a blood test.

It was only in September 2010 after she fell playing tennis on holiday in Mexico that her blood pressure was checked and she was eventually sent to Stafford Hospital. She was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, or MDS, which used to be known as pre-leukaemia.

She was told that a bone marrow, or stem cell transplant, was her only cure.

Out of her four siblings only her brother Ian was found to be a tissue match.

Lynne said: "I felt euphoric but distraught in equal measures. I was obviously devastated to have leukaemia, but so relieved Ian was a match."