A young Melbourne man who battled aggressive cancer for over a decade has met the stranger who saved his life… from the other side of the world.
Luke Melling, 32, was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma as a 16-year-old and spent years in and out of hospital, receiving treatment, undergoing trials and experiencing relapses.
In 2021, his care came under Dr David Ritchie at the RMH, who suggested Luke undergo an allogeneic transplant - which uses stem cells from a healthy donor to replace the diseased cancer cells.
“ I was pretty cooked, I was in remission and just wanted to let it run,” Luke recalls of the physical and mental toll of treatment.
But following another relapse, a transplant became the only option.
“My sister was tested and she wasn’t a match,” Luke says.
“That’s what started the whole process of going onto the register. There’s lots of risks with non-perfect donors.”
Incredibly, a “perfect” match was found on the public registry. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.
“They pretty much told me that there was one person who was a match on the registry, they couldn’t tell me anything about the person… other than that they were from the UK,” Luke remembers.
In May 2022, after harvesting and transporting back to Australia the healthy stem cells of his generous donor across the globe, Luke had his transplant.
He then spent 100 days in isolation to ensure he didn’t get sick or compromise the process.
“You’re basically getting a brand new immune system,” Luke says.
In Australia, donors are protected under privacy laws and their details, including their name, aren’t allowed to be known for two years.
So when that timeframe ended in 2024, Luke was keen to reach out to the kind stranger and say thanks.
“He didn’t reply for a few weeks – a lot people don’t,” he says.
“Then one day he replied and said it had gone to his spam.
“I messaged him and said: mate, I’m coming over to England to see family. If I come over, can I take you and your family out to dinner to say thank you?”
And 17,000km and a 24-hour flight later, that’s exactly what they did.
“It was quite emotional – we’d spoken and done a couple of video calls but that was the first time I’d met him in person,” Luke says.
“We had a hug. It was a big day and just a really nice moment - he is a genuinely lovely person with a lovely family.”
Luke and his donor continue to keep in touch and even think there could be a distant family connection, given the accuracy of the cells and the area from which Luke’s family are from.
As for the future, Luke is looking forward to getting back to work and a sense of normality after years of treatment.
“It was a pretty cool ending to that whole chapter of my life,” he says. “I feel like I’m done with this part of my life, I can move on.
“[But] it is so nice to know that I have his cells in me. Without out him, I would be buggered.”
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