Nat Henry, Coventry
“It’s a weird feeling. Saving someone’s life. A nice feeling.
“Nice to know you’ve helped someone to stay alive.”
The last few weeks have been busy for singer and student Nat Henry. He’s just finished a music course at Tile Hill College, Coventry. He’s now about to audition for a record deal in London.
And he may just have saved someone’s life.
A couple of years ago, two of his friends were going to register as donors as a part of a campaign to find a match for a Birmingham man.
Nat recalls: “I remember them saying that there were not enough black African-Caribbean people on the register. So I went along with them.
A few years later, Nat received a call from the Anthony Nolan Trust. He was found as a match.
“I went into King’s College hospital in London. I had injections for five days to make the stem cells come out of the marrow and into the blood.
“Then I had a needle in each arm while they took it out. It was ok. A little sore if I moved my arms. But I just sat there keeping them straight.”
Nat’s family has a connection with transplants. His cousin Kerrie Swords, now 31, had leukaemia when she was 14. Nobody in the family was able to provide a match, but through the Anthony Nolan Trust, a donor was found and she had the transplant three years later.
“She’s fine now,” said Nat, “but she can’t have kids because of the radiation. She also has bone damage, and she’ll be in a wheelchair by the time she’s forty. But she’s alive. And she’s with us.”
