An optometry student at Cardiff University who survived a year-long cancer battle which included the launch of a worldwide online appeal for a stem cell donor from her bedside, graduated earlier this week.
Vithiya Alphons, who underwent five rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, first hit the headlines when she embarked on a social media campaign to encourage more people to join the Anthony Nolan register when it was discovered she had just months to live unless a suitable stem cell donor was found.
After no suitable match was found, Alphons’s mother made a last-ditch attempt to save her daughter’s life.
Just two years on from her cancer diagnosis and months of treatment Alphons graduated after successfully completing her final year.
‘It was really tough returning to my studies due to my treatment and low immune system, I couldn’t go to lectures and had to do it on my own with recordings and Powerpoints,’ said Alphons. ‘I was not going to allow cancer to get in the way of getting my degree and my dream of becoming an optometrist.’
Alphons first had acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer, diagnosed in 2015 after falling ill just days after returning to Cardiff to embark on her final year of study. She takes up her first job as an optometrist in August.