Luke Melling, a 31-year-old from Melbourne suffering from Hodgkin lymphoma, traveled 10,000 miles to meet Alastair Hawken, his life-saving stem cell donor. After multiple remissions, Luke found hope in global registries when no family member matched. Their emotional meeting in Lancashire highlighted the power of donor registries, and they share their story to inspire others to join the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry. They suspect a distant family connection due to their shared ancestry from Preston, Lancashire.
The match between Luke and Alastair was so perfect that the men now believe they could be distantly related, as both their families hail from Preston, Lancashire.
Finding out we had a perfect match was an emotional moment. I remember my mum—she was in hysterics, crying when we got the news.
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