Without blood donors Fife teenage cancer survivor Aaron Berghuis would not be alive today.
The now 17-year-old from Cupar needed nine blood transfusions during treatment in his battle against an aggressive cancer.
Aaron was diagnosed with Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma – a type of soft tissue sarcoma – when he was just 11 years old.
But he became very ill while having intensive chemotherapy and as a result needed blood transfusions between every session.
He also required blood platelets which he received from donors.
Today, Aaron and his family are incredibly grateful for the blood donations he received.
And this is why they are backing The Courier’s Be Our Blood campaign.
We are asking people across Tayside, Fife and Stirling to register here and become a donor.
Every blood donation can save up to three lives, but currently less than 3% of eligible people in Scotland give blood.
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service needs 500 more people become a donor in our area this year.
Aaron is just one example of the many lives which have been saved thanks to blood donors.
Here is his story.
How a small foot lump turned out to be cancer
Aaron first noticed the small lump on the sole of his right foot during the summer holidays after he had finished primary seven at Castlehill Primary in June 2019.
Then, when he was on holiday in Italy with his family, his foot started to hurt more as they were doing a lot of walking.
“Initially it was just a lump and it didn’t hurt or anything.
“But then it started to get bigger and more painful,” Aaron explains.
“I went to the doctor first and was referred to podiatry.
“But as the waiting list was too long I was referred back to my GP and then onto orthopaedics at Victoria Hospital.
“They thought it was maybe just growing pains because my leg was quite sore by this point.”
Aaron then had an ultrasound scan of his foot and leg before being referred to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh where a biopsy was taken.
At the hospital, Aaron’s mum Marianne, 50, who is a former nurse, and his dad Lucas Jan, 57, were taken into a private room where they were dealt a devastating blow.
Marianne says: “They didn’t have the results of the biopsy at that stage.
“But they told us they highly suspected it was cancer.
“It took another week to get the full results.
“And that’s when we were told it was Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma which is a really rare and aggressive cancer.”
What was Aaron’s reaction to the diagnosis?
Aaron was given the diagnosis by one of the hospital consultants.
“It didn’t kind of hit me until a bit later on,” he says.
“I was only 11 at the time so while I kind of knew what cancer was I didn’t really understand it.”
Aaron had been due to start Bell Baxter High School in August 2019.
But when his leg severely swelled up, he was rushed into the Royal Hospital as an emergency admission.
He then started chemotherapy treatment on what would have been his first day at high school.
“The cancer had spread up my leg and was in the lymph nodes,” he says.
“It was so quick because the cancer was so aggressive.”
The family then divided with Marianne staying with Aaron at the hospital while Lucas remained at home in Cupar with Aaron’s younger brother Elliot, now 16.
How was Fife teen’s cancer treated?
Aaron had nine cycles of chemotherapy which started in August 2019.
The sessions took place at the Royal Hospital for Children & Young People in Edinburgh (formerly Royal Hospital for Sick Children).
And the treatment involved prolonged periods in hospital for Aaron.
It was in between these sessions that he needed donated blood.
Marianne says: “The chemotherapy completely knocked Aaron’s immune system.
“Haemoglobin, white cells, platelets and neutrophils are closely monitored and if they are too low a blood transfusion is required.
“At one stage he became so ill that he needed two units of blood between chemotherapy sessions.
“He also needed three platelet transfusions.
“But he wouldn’t have got through the chemotherapy without these transfusions.”
The importance of blood donations
Lucas Jan, who worked on the blood collection team at Dundee Blood Donor Centre at the time, says it really had an impact when he saw how the donations helped his son.
“When you saw the blood coming in a bag from someone fit and healthy and it was passed to us to be scanned, you always felt it was special,” he says.
“This is because you knew it was going to help somebody.
“But to see that blood going to Aaron was the weirdest experience – it just hit me so hard.
“That someone I didn’t know had given up their time to give blood which was now helping my son was unreal.
“It just brought it home just how special it is. It saved his life.”
After the chemotherapy Aaron went on to have six weeks of radiotherapy targeting his foot, knee and groin.
This was completed in March 2020 before he had maintenance chemotherapy for 12 months.
He eventually completed his cancer treatment in March 2021.
Fife teen thankful for blood donors
Initially Aaron had scans every three months and now he has them every six months as part of his ongoing review.
But while his cancer treatment finished, he still suffers the after-effects of it.
Due to the radiotherapy, his right leg stopped growing so he had to have surgery on his left leg to halt its growth – minimising the leg length discrepancy.
Aaron has ongoing pain in his right leg and is now registered disabled.
Yet he hasn’t let what’s happened to him hold him back.
The straight-A student has just finished his sixth year at high school and wants to pursue a career in medicine.
“I want to be a doctor so I can give back to the NHS in the same way I was helped,” he says.
“I am really thankful to NHS staff and doctors.
“But I am also grateful to those who gave blood which saved my life.”
Marianne says her son’s experience shows just how vital blood donors are.
“I think people don’t realise how important it is when they go along to give blood – it is totally life saving.”
She adds: “We are witness to someone’s life being saved by blood donations.”
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