A man has described the moment he travelled across the Atlantic to meet the woman whose life he helped save with a stem cell donation.

Callum Kennedy-Mann, a 22-year-old Stoke Newington lifeguard, flew to Pennsylvania in the US to meet Diane Fargo over Thanksgiving in 2022.

He had helped treat Diane’s aggressive form of leukaemia with a stem cell donation.

After signing up to a stem cell register when he was 16, Callum received the news that he was a genetic match with Diane in 2019 while he was studying at York University.

Callum said: “I didn’t hesitate in saying I’d do it after they told me I was the best possible match.

“It was instinctive for me, knowing I could have a huge impact on someone’s life.”

Two years after the donation, he was able to contact Diane and to his relief learnt she was still recovering well from the treatment.

Callum said: “That was the most emotional moment for me – receiving a letter telling me she was alive.”

Diane then offered Callum and his girlfriend the chance to travel and meet her in America and he quickly accepted the offer, flying to spend American Thanksgiving together.

Diane described Callum as her “guardian angel”.

She said: “For my doctor to have found a ‘perfect donor match’ was incredible news.

“Then to find out it was a young man from London who saved my life without hesitation was just amazing to hear.”

She added that she would “be forever grateful to Callum for his kind and selfless sacrifice.”

Anthony Nolan, a charity helping those with blood cancer, is calling on more young men like Callum to sign up to its stem cell register.

Anthony Nolan chief executive Henny Braund said: “Younger men, such as Callum, aged under 30 are 13 times more likely to be selected for donation in the UK, so it is vital that more consider joining.”

The charity also urges those from a minority ethnic background to register, as it said only 37% of transplant recipients from minority backgrounds receive the best stem cell donor match from an unrelated donor, compared with 72% of patients from white Caucasian backgrounds.

Callum said it was an easy process to register as a stem cell donor and you could have a “huge impact on not just one person’s life, but their entire family and friendship circle”.

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