Meet our first donor, Shuhel

Our first blood stem cell donation took place at the start of 2014. The donor was Shuhel Miah, a 21 year old from London. He had registered at one of our events for a young boy called Rayaan, which took place in a London mosque in the Summer of 2013. Shuhel donated some of his blood stem cells to be given to a seriously ill blood cancer patient who needed a blood stem cell donation for their survival. He made the donation through a peripheral blood stem cell collection at King’s College Hospital.

27/01/2021

Our first blood stem cell donation took place at the start of 2014. The donor was Shuhel Miah, a 21 year old from London. He had registered at one of our events for a young boy called Rayaan, which took place in a London mosque in the Summer of 2013.

Shuhel donated some of his blood stem cells to be given to a seriously ill blood cancer patient who needed a blood stem cell donation for their survival. He made the donation through a peripheral blood stem cell collection at King’s College Hospital.

Asked if he knew about blood stem cell donation before he attended the recruitment event, he said that he had thought a lot of people were already doing this but he hadn't realised that there was such a need.

Shuhel said that he was initially surprised to get the call from us telling him that he was a match for someone in need of a donation, but was then very happy to have the opportunity to potentially save a life.

Shuhel, who had just returned from undertaking humanitarian work in Syria, spoke about how easy the process of donation was:

The donation didn’t sound difficult but it was still a lot easier than I thought it would be. It is very easy. All I had to do was have injections for four days beforehand and it was very flexible as to when they could come and give me the injections. I am not in any pain or discomfort and I couldn’t even feel the needle. They put this cream on me and when they put the needle in, I could feel that someone was touching me, but I couldn't even feel a scratch.

Asked what he would say to anyone apprehensive of the needles, he said to tell them that it was over in a second. As for the collection, he said that it was the easiest part of the process.