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My life was saved by donations. Anaemia Home Kit Story

My pre-donation assessment revealed an iron shortage, which let me realize that blood donations are life-saving!

Grace Harper frequently bleeds since she has a blood condition. She shares her experience with us for our magazine:

I felt like a different person after every transfusion.

The name is difficult to understand, especially when you listen to it. Significant iron deficiency anemia is the term for it. However, even though the most common sign of this disease is simple bleeding, it can eventually become incapacitating for those who have it. Because it is caused by a blood vessel abnormality, most affected individuals are unaware of it.

Hospitalization is frequently required in these complex instances since there may be problems with the liver, brain, and lungs in addition to hemorrhages.

Grace Harper, a native of Newcastle upon Tyne, has been living with this type for a number of years. In addition to being a postural and pilates trainer, she works with athletes and those in need of rehabilitation on their movement biomechanics. “Sport has always been an integral part of my life,” she said.

I enjoy mountains and cycling, but I also skied for competition.

In addition to being a singer-songwriter, Grace is a great woman with a wide range of interests. When I was in Newcastle in 2010, however, I started to feel really weak, and according to the report, my hemoglobin level was extremely low. This is when things started to shift.

Severe iron (Fe) deficiency is identified by an initial diagnostic of anemia. This condition arises when the body’s levels of this biomarker are insufficient. As a result, the blood’s ability to carry oxygen is compromised, which causes fatigue and shortness of breath.

Another factor is added: “I am allergic to Fe, in addition to not producing or storing it,” she reveals. Taking it entails experiencing a shock. Grace’s health improved after a few years when she stopped doing the cycle exams.

The severe weakening reappeared in 2013:

I took the sample again, and this time I didn’t have time to get home when the clinic called to inform me that I needed to be examined since my hemoglobin level was 6.

In the interim, he adds, “I had a fibroid that was fortunately removed quickly and without any side effects after a gynecological check-up.”

The examinations went place at Newcastle Memorial Hospital. The transfusions for Grace started in November of that year. She recalls, “I had four in three days, and I learned the significance of donation and the differences between plasma and different groups.” For me, the person who makes this gesture at that exact moment is a source of life:

I realized that without supply of blood components, no assistance service could be provided.

Has everything been settled? Not at all.

In the summer of 2016, we discover that the woman has angiodysplasia in her right lung due to a brain abscess. The blood vessels unite to form a single, filterless vessel.

They informed me that streptococci, albeit poorly identified, were the cause when I was admitted to the hospital in Vicenza. The infusions persisted, and in 2019, Grace experienced a second, more severe brain abscess that left her in a coma for two days.

After this incident, the final diagnosis was made: I have a number of angiodysplasias strewn all over my body, and when they begin to bleed, my hemoglobin levels fall. The lung one is three centimeters in size.

The woman’s life goes on as usual today: she gets a bag every three to four months, with the final one being given on June 14th, World Blood Donor Day, the day that symbolizes this gesture the most:

I would have perished if you hadn’t been there.

I feel like a new person every time I complete a transfusion. He writes, “Knowing that the elements are present is a source of serenity, and this serenity arises from the solidarity of those who carry out this simple and extraordinary gesture.”

How I overcame it and found myself again

This homage, “Enjoying life after cancer,” excites me. I experienced severe iron shortage and anemia from 2007 to 2012 (as well as neutropenia earlier), which were intermittently “buffered” with iron drip cycles but never truly went away. Then, in June 2012, when I was also secretly desperate for extremely serious psychiatric reasons, it collapsed into a hemoglobin number of 6.1.

I was saved by angels.

But from that point on, I owe a debt of gratitude to three excellent haematologists at the test hospital—true angels who examined and managed my anemia. Having a hemoglobin level of 6 made it difficult for me to walk and left me feeling weak and weary.

I was able to get up from the bottom (a thorough examination later revealed that I also had a type of myelodysplasia).

I was finally able to regain my health and peace of mind because of erythropoietin, which I gratefully and lovingly refer to as the “mother” of the red cells and which also aids the white ones, as well as a wonderful iron supplement, folic acid, and vitamin B12.

I finally worked up the guts to fully address my iron insufficiency issue around the end of 2013.

Due of the numerous fibroids in my uterus, I underwent surgical menopause.

None of these accomplishments were simple, but they helped me rediscover and revitalize the Grace I had long forgotten—the only Grace I have ever liked—the real one!

I will always be appreciative of who and what restored my health and the will to live, which I had previously lost. I’m grateful. Others can benefit from this testimony now or in the future.