Sam Williams was just a normal student attending the University of Birmingham before his life was torn apart in an instant.

A week before sitting his final exams he was struck ill with glandular fever - and then contracted sepsis in hospital.

Yet tests would reveal further news that would change Sam's life forever.

Doctors discovered he had a life threatening rare blood cancer named Myelodysplastic syndrome, otherwise known as MDS.

But over the next two years he beat the odds by fighting the cancer - with the help of an anonymous German stem cell donor.

Sam, from Walsall, was first diagnosed with the condition aplastic anemia aged just three years old. The drug treatment he received was successful and he lived a normal life growing up.

But after turning 21, with the end of university in sight, his life was changed forever after being hospitalised.

"It was completely sudden," recalls Sam, now aged 23.

"It was found that I didn't have aplastic anemia anymore, it was a condition called MDS. That was a life threatening condition.

"That was a real shock. I was healthy for so many years. To suddenly be told you have a serious blood disorder and need a blood transplant, that was a massive shock for me."

Doctors told Sam he would need a stem cell donor. It took six weeks of waiting before he found one through leading blood charity Anthony Nolan.

"I had to go back to the hospital every week, and every week they were telling me 'sorry we haven't found anybody' and that felt like it was going to go on forever," he recalled.

"Literally whilst I was talking to the consultant an email popped up on his screen saying that a donor was found for me. That came as a real shock."

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After Sam received the life saving donation, he felt compelled to reach out to the man who gave him a second chance at life.

However, there are strict guidelines surrounding contact between transplant recipients and donors.

Anonymity is paramount and any information passed between the two parties is discussed and organised by the Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation (SN-OD), the Recipient Transplant Coordinator and the Donor Records Department (DRD).

"For me it would have been almost certain that I wouldn't be alive today if he had not donated," says Sam.

"Shortly after the transplant, I wrote him a letter.

"I was trying to explain at the time that I was extremely thankful for what he has done but it was impossible to put it into words - thank you just wasn't enough.

"I [wrote] how difficult it was to put into words how to thank them for what they had done, because they had effectively given me a second chance at life which was of course something very significant to me.

"I wasn't able to say much more than that due to data protection regulations. I could say that I was an adult, for example, but I couldn't give any details of my age, where I lived, etc."

"I wrote just a very short letter, it took me three days of redrafting that before I got the wording correct. I just graduated from university at the time, I found that letter harder to write than my dissertation.

"Unfortunately [he] didn't respond. I would have been absolutely over the moon if he had.

"I really would have loved to have met him one day. I have absolutely no idea what I would say to him if I met him in person, but at the same time I respect that it's his right not to respond."

Since treatment, Sam has seen a complete transformation of health.

Although his gratitude to the anonymous man who saved him was never reciprocated, he lives on with the legacy of his donated stem cells that gave him another chance at life.

"To the best of my knowledge he was the only suitable match for me anywhere in the world, if he hadn't donated at the time there would have been no other alternative for me.

"Almost certainly if I had not received the transplant at the time, almost certainly it would have resulted in my death to be honest."

The future is now looking bright for the graduate.

Sam said: "Everything is going pretty well, the blood donation I needed the transplant for has been completely cured.

"I managed to get out of hospital to do my exams and thankfully I was able to graduate before the end of the year in July 2017.

"It's been completely life changing. In some ways its changed my life much more for the positive.

"If I had not had the transplant when I did, there's no doubt I would not be alive today or my quality of life would be dreadful.

"I can get out and about more, socialise with my friends, I am able to do things that I wouldn't be able to do for quite a while because of my health.

"I feel like my life is starting to return to normal now two years on."

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'My shock cancer scare and the anonymous German who saved me' - Birmingham Live