Shirley Nolan (far right) and supporters campaigning for funds
1971 Anthony Nolan was born and found to be suffering from the very rare Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome (WAS), a rare inherited immunological disorder affecting around four male babies in a million.
1973 The world's first bone marrow transplant was performed using an unrelated donor - previously, transplants had always been taken from a relative of the patient. The success of this operation quickly became the foundation for Shirley’s vision.
1974 Shirley established The Anthony Nolan Register in the basement of Westminster Children's Hospital, the organisation’s first home, under the direction of Dr David James. Dr. James was a consultant pathologist, responsible for the donor testing programme at Westminster Children's Hospital where Anthony was a patient.
The help from Thanet Round Tablers in the establishment of the Register marked a long and illustrious history of support from The Round Tables of Great Britain and Ireland.
Tissue-typing was then, as it is today, a complex and expensive process. Shirley was determined raise the necessary funds - she had no financial resources of her own.
From the start Anthony's plight captured the media's attention and Shirley's appeal was well supported by a number of personalities from the world of entertainment. Progress was painfully slow at first with only a handful of new donors being tissue-typed and added to the Register each week.
1976 By 1976 there were six people working on the Register and it was time to find more suitable accommodation.
1978 After two years of planning and campaigning the Register moved to a disused laboratory at St Mary Abbots Hospital and there in September 1978 The Anthony Nolan Laboratory was officially opened. It was once again The Round Table who raised the money for necessary materials and new equipment to turn a very old building into a modern laboratory.
1979 Anthony Nolan dies aged seven.
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