A woman whose life was saved after a community-wide hunt for a bone marrow donor has been diagnosed with leukaemia once again.
Sharon Berger received the devastating news after a routine blood test last week and is now facing several weeks of chemotherapy in medical isolation. The 65-year-old's family have relaunched their Spit4Mum project, which rallied the Jewish community into helping Mrs Berger.
Her son Jonni revealed his mother's condition on social media this week. He told the JC: "It was obviously a massive shock, but then she just gets on with things. She insisted on cooking Friday night dinner for us, even though she knew she was going to be in hospital for several weeks, if not months."
In December 2012, Mrs Berger fell seriously ill with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a malfunction of the bone marrow in producing blood cells. She underwent intensive chemotherapy in hospital while waiting for a transplant.
A donor was found following a four-month campaign known by its Twitter hashtag #Spit4Mum, which received support from across the Jewish community. Over 1,190 Jewish people joined the Anthony Nolan donor register as a result.
The grandmother-of-two from Kenton, north-west London will now be treated at Hammersmith Hospital. Her family hopes she will be able to undergo another stem-cell transplant - providing a donor can be found.
"She's very resilient and stoic," Mr Berger, 37, said. "Her own personal challenge is to get through the chemo and get better as soon as possible, while our challenge as a family is to support her and to encourage as many people as possible to sign up as stem-cell donors."
Writing on his Facebook page on Sunday, Mr Berger added: "In 2013 an amazing anonymous stem-cell donor gave our Mum a second chance at life as her bone marrow donor, if there is such a thing as a third chance, we need it."
Donors who have already registered are being checked again to see if they are a match, but new volunteers are also being urged to come forward.
Ann O'Leary, head of register development at Anthony Nolan, said the charity was "extremely saddened" that Mrs Berger's cancer had returned.