Former magistrate Louise Kaye is used to helping others. But now she needs the help of her community after being diagnosed with a fast-growing blood cancer that needs urgent treatment.
The West Londoner is trying to find a Jewish donor for stem cell treatment that could save her life.
When Louise, who is 66, went to her GP in July with symptoms of dizziness and exhaustion she didn’t expect it would be the first part of a journey that would “turn her life upside down”.
She told the JC: “I am a really busy and active person normally, so it came as a big shock.
“Doctors told me to cancel my plans for the next few months.”
Routine blood tests ordered by her GP revealed she had acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and within a week she was admitted to the London Clinic hospital to start an intensive round of chemotherapy.
She will have a further three rounds and has been told that while she can expect the chemotherapy to put her into remission, she will need urgent stem cell treatment after it has finished.
The best stem cell matches come from the exact ethnic background of the person needing the transplant, making it harder for those from minority communities to find a match.
“I am 99.9 per cent Ashkenazi and I need to find a young healthy donor,” she explained.
“Even though my sister would be the first port of call, at 72 she would be considered too old. Ideally anyone between 19 and 55 could be a match. Even if those who sign up are not a match for me, they could potentially save someone’s life.”
Louise, who is “trying to remain positive” about her illness, said she has been amazed at how much blood she has received since starting treatment.
“You don’t think about it until you are in need but the people out there giving blood or joining these registers are saving lives like mine,” she said. Louise is appealing to the Jewish community internationally to sign up to one of the many stem cell donor registers.
She added: “I didn’t know but there is one stem cell register for Jewish donors in the UK and one in the US and one in Israel and they all talk to each other so you can find a match anywhere.
“The process is bit more than giving blood but it is not invasive and if it doesn’t help me it could help someone else.”
Louise was widowed in 2019 when her husband David died. Her own family had fled pogroms and war in the past two centuries and she has always been motivated to help others.
When war broke out in Ukraine she decided she would help a Ukrainian woman and her children, who had fled their country.
After contacting them via WhatsApp, she arranged for Svitlana Sabri and her 17-year-old son Timur and his older sister Karina to come and stay in her west London home.
Louise helped them overcome challenges such as getting Timur into a school, opening a bank account and registering with a local GP.
Timur, who was offered a free place at the private school Latymer Upper in Hammersmith, recently achieved A, C and D in music, physics and maths at A-level and will go on to study sound engineering at the University of Surrey.
Friends of Louise told the JC she “has helped so many people and it is important that we help her when she needs our help the most”.
Louise told the JC: “I have always enjoyed helping people. I like keeping busy and I plan to return to that life once this treatment is out of the way.
“I am positive about it, I don’t sit there and think, why me? I just want to get on with it.”
You can sign up to be a donor via the Sue Harris Trust, sueharristrust.org.
