LEUKAEMIA sufferer Kim Allistone is back at work and feeling great thanks to a pioneering drug treatment which is having phenomenal success in trials across Britain and the United States.
Latest tests show that Kim, who made a desperate appeal in the Okehampton Times for a life-saving bone marrow match a year ago, is almost 50 per cent clear of the disease.
The 29-year-old from Taunton is one of 1,100 sufferers of the relatively rare form of cancer, Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, testing the new wonder drug known as Glivec, which unlike chemotherapy has little or no side-effects.
She was one of the last to be accepted as a 'guinea pig' after her brother tracked down information on the internet relating to a trial being undertaken at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.
Since she started on the treatment back in January, which involves taking one tablet a day, her chronic tiredness and headaches have slowly disappeared and her three-monthly check-ups are showing good results.
'To be told you are practically halfway to recovery is great news — the doctors say that in most cases it is taking just over a year to show a complete recovery but everyone is different,' said Kim, who runs a nursing home in Taunton with her husband, Patrick. 'In some cases it has taken less than six months.
'For months and months I had a headache but now I am feeling really well and it's wonderful to be back at work and doing normal things again.'
A year ago things looked bleak for Kim whose only hope of survival at that time was a bone marrow transplant. When none of her five siblings provided a match she turned to the Okehampton community, from where her family originates, in the hope that relatives would come forward and eventually a match would be found.
Many new donors signed up to the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust register as a result of the appeal, which went nationwide, and a suitable donor was traced.
Kim then had to face the difficult decision of postponing the life-saving operation to enter the trials for the new drug.
'I was at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London when I was told about a drug which was coming out for people with this particular type of leukaemia,' she said.
'My brother then found out, through the internet, they were having trials in the UK and one of the centres was at Derriford.
'I was willing to do anything under the circumstances and the consultant agreed to sign me up.'
Kim and her family are keeping their fingers crossed that the next test, just before Christmas, will show a further reduction in the disease and some time next year she will be free of leukaemia.
Glivec, previously known as ST1 571, was developed by an English doctor working in Switzerland and it has proved so successful that licensing authorities have already made it available for public use.
Consultant haematologist at Derriford, Dr Simon Rule, who is conducting the trial, said the study at the hospital had only been going just over a year and all of his patients were doing 'phenomenally well' .
Glivec attacks the abnormal protein which is produced by the leukaemia but unlike chemotherapy it does not damage surrounding healthy cells.
'It's a totally new kind of treatment, ' said Dr Rule. 'There are no side effects — it does not make you sick or your hair full out. You take a tablet once a day and it is as good as gold.
'It is the first time in my life that I have ever come across anything as impressive as this but it does come at a price.'
The drug costs around £17,000 per patient per year, but the doctor added that people could go back to work and pay their taxes whereas with chemotherapy, which costs £10,000 a year, they could not work because they felt so ill.
Despite the amazing results being seen by doctors, the long-term effectiveness of the drug is not yet known although there are patients in America who have been completely free of the disease for a couple of years.
Dr Rule said a bone marrow transplant would always be the first option because it was a proven cure and had a higher than 60 per cent success rate in patients who were young with a sibling donor. But he could prescribe Glivec today if conventional treatments have not worked.
'Bone marrow transplants cure people and what we know, for sure, about Glivec is that it does not kill anybody,' added the doctor.
' However, what we have seen so far is something which is in order of magnitude way above any comparable treatment.'
Meanwhile, a new method of bone marrow testing has been developed to prevent potential donors having to go through a general anaesthetic procedure.
The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust is hoping many more people will come forward for the simple blood test. To find out more contact south west area manager Lynne Hodgson on 01752 672060.