The Christie<\/a> in April 2023.<\/p>\nMPAL is a cancer that affects the bone marrow and accounts for less than five per cent of all leukaemia cases.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_David-and-John-1jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
David (left) was a stem cell donor for John (right)(Image: The Christie)<\/p>\n
Stem cell transplants are used to treat some blood cancers. Damaged cells are replaced with healthy donor stem cells, allowing the body to produce normal blood cells again.<\/p>\n
The donor on that occasion was a 21 year-old from Israel who was found to be a ‘perfect match.’ It was initially successful, and he returned home the following month. But just over two years later, in July last year, he began to feel uncomfortable whilst out running, and suspected something was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d been doing a ten-mile run and just felt unusually out of breath,\u201d John said. \u201cI went to my GP to get a blood test. A few days later, The Christie rang me to say the leukaemia was back.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_David-John-Mum-Shelley-and-Dad-Leslie-young-3jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
John and David as youngsters with mum Shelley and dad Leslie<\/p>\n
He immediately called his younger brother David, 42, who lives in New York with his wife and two children. David had previously been identified as a suitable donor, which is around a one in four chance for siblings, but was unable to donate at the time because of anaemia.<\/p>\n
However he wanted to be ready if another opportunity came up, and had been working on getting his own health, including having iron infusions to raise his iron levels.<\/p>\n
After a new round of tests, it was confirmed that David was able to donate. So in October, he travelled from the US to Manchester for the procedure at The Christie.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_John-and-David-3jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
John (left) said ‘I know how lucky I am’<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a few days of injections into the tummy beforehand, but that\u2019s about it,\u201d David said. \u201cIt was much easier than I expected. I know it\u2019s serious stuff, but the personality of the staff put us at ease. I take my hat off to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The night beforehand they spent the night in John’s room eating pizza together. David’s cells were then collected, in a procedure which took around six hours. And he described the donation process as ‘like an out of body experience.’<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw the stem cells coming out in the bag, and then the day after watched them give them to John, I didn\u2019t really know how to react,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was like an out of body experience. Seeing my brother have millions of my cells put into his body. Not many people get to witness that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_John-and-David-4jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
John (left) now hopes to raise awareness and funds for leukemia<\/p>\n
John is now said to be recovering well. His latest results show that 99.5 percent of the cells in his blood are from his brother\u2019s donation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling good and getting back to normal,” he said, “I\u2019ve been out running again, doing some boxing classes, and just taking things day by day. I know how lucky I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he was growing up, John and David’s family raised over \u00a3500,000 for services in Manchester through \u2018Leukas Aid\u2019, a charity set up by his mum after a close family friend was diagnosed with leukaemia.<\/p>\n
The funding helped to develop the specialist leukaemia ward at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He now hopes to give back himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s strange how things come full circle,\u201d John said. \u201cIf I can help raise awareness or support research into this rare leukaemia, that\u2019s something I\u2019d really like to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Blackston from Worsley has spoken about his sibling’s incredible donation John Blackston (left) with his brother David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,104,2205,2447,20039,56,54,158,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-547304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-real-life","12":"tag-salford","13":"tag-the-christie-hospital","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_John-left-and-David-right-in-The-Christie-gardenjpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n