A Bedfordshire Police officer has been reunited with a woman whose life he saved after donating stem cells four years ago. Beatrice, a mother of two, from Palm Springs, California, was diagnosed with Myelofibrosis at the age of 23.

The condition is a rare type of blood cancer which leads to leukaemia.

She has been living with the condition for the majority of her adult life, managing the symptoms with medication and waiting for a donor match, as this is the only known treatment for this condition.

Her ethnic background Beatrice is half European and half Vietnamese meant that the chance of finding a match was extremely unlikely. In 2008, after years of searching, she gave up on ever finding a donor to focus her time on taking care of her young children. This was two months before PC Andrew Harris joined the register.

Over time her health began to deteriorate and she was in desperate need of a stem cell donation to save her life.

So in 2015, when she was about to enter into palliative care, her health care provider ran one last check on the donor register and she received the most welcome news. There was a perfect genetic match on a donor list a police officer, PC Harris, from the United Kingdom.

At the same time the news came through, Beatrices condition had deteriorated and she was very poorly. Thankfully, her health improved enough to get through the transplant procedure. The transplant was successful and after the two year waiting period, Beatrice and Andrew got in touch through Skype.

They have stayed in touch over time and met in person in London a month ago.

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Bedfordshire Police officer reunited with stem cell recipient - Cranfield and Marston Vale Chronicle