A BLOOD cancer survivor is urging residents to donate bone marrow after being given a stem cell transplant when she had months to live.

Jo Kelly, from Ditton, Widnes, received a stem cell donation from a stranger from Germany in 2012 when she was 27.

That came after six previous matches for Jo’s blood and tissue type had been found, but all of them dropped off the donor register.

She said: “I was totally against the clock – I’d been given about six months to live and I was about four months in to that.

“I was in a terminal position and I was really frightened because I thought there was nobody on there who would be a match for me.

“But there was one single match – a 24-year-old German male who was very keen to do it.”

After a successful transplant, Jo spent a month in hospital and had to learn to walk and write again during a year-long recovery.

Now the 31-year-old is urging the public to sign up to the donor register, with women also able to donate their child’s umbilical cord after birth at some hospitals.

Jo said: “I’m still here to tell the tale but I had friends who didn’t make it.

“When someone is called up from the register they are really needed and I think the odds of being called up are one in 250,000.

“I’ve been very lucky to say that I’m four years in and it’s working – the odds of that are quite low and I think only about 30 per cent of people make it past the year.

“It made me realise that when someone needs the register it’s urgent and it’s not really an option for them to wait because they need it right now.”