Bone Marrow Transplant

High-dose chemotherapy clears the diseased marrow and healthy stem cells are then infused to rebuild it — either your own cells collected earlier, or those of a matched donor.

What the treatment involves

Conditioning chemotherapy over several days, then the infusion itself, which is quick and unremarkable to watch. What follows is the difficult part: two to four weeks with almost no immune system, in a protected room, while the new marrow engrafts.

Recovery and what to expect

Three to six weeks as an inpatient, then close outpatient follow-up. Mouth ulcers, infections and profound fatigue are expected rather than exceptional. After a donor transplant, graft-versus-host disease is a real risk and is monitored for months.

Being realistic about the timeline

This is not a procedure you fly in for and leave after a fortnight. Nobody should book travel around an optimistic version of this schedule, and we will give you the honest one before anything is arranged.

What we arrange around it

Three months in the country as a working assumption, with a companion throughout. We arrange accommodation suitable for someone immunosuppressed.