Melksham woman’s leukaemia journey inspires charity skydive

A Melksham resident is taking on a 15,000ft skydive to help others facing blood cancer after no matching adult stem cell donor could be found for her during treatment for leukaemia.

Lisa Coldwell is preparing for the tandem skydive on 22nd August at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, to raise money for DKMS, a charity that recruits stem cell donors and supports patients in need of transplants.

Lisa was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in 2019 and needed a stem cell transplant. However, no matching adult donor could be found anywhere in the world, so she received stem cells from umbilical cord blood donated by two babies in France and Germany.

“It was a bit of a weird one when I had the actual transplant,” said Lisa. “Luckily it worked because if it had not, I wouldn’t have had any options. Essentially, I just feel that there needs to be more people on the database and it obviously costs them, so I wanted to help.”

After three rounds of chemotherapy, two rounds of radiotherapy and the transplant, Lisa is now six years clear of leukaemia but says the search for matches continues for many others.

“Each swab kit costs the charity around £40 to process, which they cannot do without support,” she said.

Lisa said her own experience encouraged her to help more people join the stem cell register.

She will take on the challenge alongside a colleague whose husband has pancreatic cancer and who is raising money for a support group in Warminster.

“When you have come that close to not being around, everything else is temporary,” said Lisa. “The thought of jumping out of a plane is a little bit scary but it’ll be over with and I will still be alive at the end of it.”

Lisa has raised money for several blood cancer charities since her recovery and is also planning a wing walk next year to raise funds for the Royal United Hospital in Bath, which supported her during her treatment.

To support Lisa’s fundraiser visit https://shorturl.at/gqcms