26 MARCH 2017 womensrunninguk.co.uk
⁄ INSPIRATION⁄ INSPIRATION
"MY TRANSPLANT
TURNED ME INTO A
GOLD MEDALLIST"
Melissa Fehr has survived a rare disorder to win six gold medals
at the World Transplant Games and set up her own businessWORDS: LISA JACKSONwas in the best shape of my
life and had recently become
engaged, when my whole
world fell apart,” says Melissa
Fehr, 37, from London. “I'd been diagnosed
with a bone-marrow disorder at the age of
five but, after undergoing a very risky and
experimental treatment with an 80 per cent
mortality rate in Pennsylvania, where I'm
originally from, I thought I was cured for life.
“Only a few close friends heard me
occasionally say, 'Oh yeah, I almost died
when I was a kid'. But it wasn't really part of
my life any more. All that changed in 2008,
when I suddenly felt very sluggish on the 10K
runs I was doing three times a week. I also
noticed bleeding in the whites of my eyes.”
Melissa was told her bone marrow was
failing. “I had a super-low blood count and,
within the space of a few months, needed
four blood transfusions each week just to
stay alive.” Anthony Nolan, a bone-marrow-
donor database charity, sent out a global
appeal and found an anonymous bone-
marrow donor in America who saved her life
with an emergency transplant in July 2009.RISKY TREATMENT
“All I knew about transplants was that
they were incredibly risky and seen as
a last-chance treatment. But there was
never any question I wouldn't have one. The
doctors told me there was a 30 per cent
mortality rate, but because I have a science
background, I was able to distance myself
from that statistic. I was only 30 years old,
incredibly healthy before my illness, and
suffering from bone-marrow failure rather
than an aggressive cancer (sometimes this
condition gets lumped in with blood cancers
as they receive exactly the same chemo).”
A bone-marrow transplant involves a
week of high-dose chemotherapy in a germ-
free 'bubble' ward, followed by a single IV
drip of stem cells from your donor, then three
weeks of blood transfusions and antibiotics.
“I wasn’t overly concerned about losing my
hair,” says Melissa. “What hurt more was
losing the body I'd worked so hard for. I'd
been the fittest I’d ever been, and I couldn’t
see how I could ever get to that place again.”
Everything went as planned with the
transplant. “But the first six months post-
transplant were just about the worst anyone
could have. I had to spend them in total
isolation – no shops, no public transport or
taxis, no restaurants, nothing. I had to have
daily antifungal intravenous drips.”I