A Worcestershire nurse who thought her crushing fatigue was due to punishing work shifts has revealed she is fighting an aggressive blood cancer and needs a life-saving stem cell donor.
From Tiredness to Diagnosis
Emilia Shaw, a 41-year-old mother-of-two from Bromsgrove, first noticed something was wrong during the summer of 2025. She felt persistently exhausted, a feeling she initially put down to her early morning nursing shifts and caring for her young sons, Henry, six, and Felix, four.
The tiredness became so severe she would feel drowsy at the wheel and even fell asleep while watching a pantomime with her children. "I was just so tired all the time," Emilia recalled. Alongside the fatigue, she developed a continuous cough and began to feel increasingly unwell.
By October, her symptoms had escalated dramatically. She started experiencing severe headaches, bleeding gums, and unusually heavy periods. This alarming decline prompted her to book a blood test with her GP in December 2025.
A Life-Changing Result
The results were so concerning that her doctor sent her directly to Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. Tests revealed her white blood cell count was dangerously high, while her red blood cells and platelets had plummeted. On December 9, 2025, Emilia received the devastating diagnosis: acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
"I crumbled when she told me what leukaemia she had," said her husband, Ben Shaw, 37. The news was particularly traumatic for the family, as Ben's mother had died from cancer just 17 days after her own diagnosis three years prior.
Emilia has since completed her first round of chemotherapy at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and is preparing for a second. However, doctors have been clear that chemotherapy alone will not cure her. She will need a stem cell transplant to replace her diseased blood-forming cells with healthy ones.
A Family's Hope and a Plea for Help
Emilia is hopeful a matching donor can be found quickly, possibly from one of her siblings, though this is not yet confirmed. "Knowing that the cancer I have is treatable with a stem cell transplant has meant a lot to us," she said.
The former staff nurse, who once worked at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, now faces the prospect of becoming a patient there for the transplant procedure. "It's strange to go from nurse to patient, but I know they'll look after me," she added.
Emilia and her family are now working with the blood cancer charity DKMS to encourage more people to join the stem cell donor register. The registration process is simple, involving a few health questions and a cheek swab sent to your home.
Currently, around 2,000 people in the UK are waiting for a matching donor, yet only 7% of those eligible are on the register. Emilia's story highlights the critical shortage of potential donors and the life-changing difference one person can make.
