Dolphin-Rowland is now appealing for more people to join the stem cell register.
“I was so happy when I found out about my donor.
“I can’t thank people enough for registering, it is such a selfless act. Donors are amazing.
“But, we need more people,” she said.
“It’s a really easy process – you go and have a blood test and you get put on the register.
“You might never get called up, but you could save somebody’s life and give them a future.”
The NHS Blood Team said registering as a potential stem cell donor was easy and “in many cases, a stem cell transplant is a patient’s only chance of a cure”.
Donation is usually done via the blood – a special donation where stem cells are filtered out of your blood and the rest of the blood returned to your body.
In one in ten donations, it can be best to have a procedure to take them from the bone marrow.
“Stem cell donors are giving someone a chance at life, someone is giving me my life back and the chance to be a nana,” she said.
Guy Parkes, head of stem cell donation and transplantation, said they were seeing the highest number of people joining the registry since the mid-1990s.
“It is fantastic to see the continued growth of the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry, helping give more patients the chance of a life-saving stem cell transplant,” he said.
“There is more to do, particularly to increase the diversity of the registry.
“We want every patient who needs a stem cell transplant to have the best possible chance of finding a match.”