A couple who have spent 15 months in hospital with their daughter have now been told she has days to live after a complication following a cell donation operation. Porsha Williams, now aged three, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in September 2021, and has spent every day in Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff since.
Porsha, from Merthyr Tydfil, had her last chemotherapy treatment in November 2021 and has been in remission since, but following a bone marrow transplant in January she was diagnosed with graft versus host disease - where white blood cells in the donated bone marrow attack other cells in the body. It is caused when donated cells - referred to as the graft - see the body’s cells as foreign.
Many cases of the disease can be treated successfully according to medical experts, but some can cause severe and possibly fatal damage to the organs. Chloe Williams, Porsha’s mum, says she has been told that the damage caused to her daughter’s lungs is fatal. Last week she was told Porsha had around three days to live, but she is still fighting from her hospital bed where Chloe, Porsha’s father Jamie, her one-year-old sister Maemae, and grandparents Lynda and Lian were able to spend time with her on Christmas Day.
