Elle Wintle (Law PhD 2025) hopes her story can encourage others to give a second chance by signing up to be stem cell donors.

Elle matriculated at Gonville & Caius College in Lent term, having deferred the place she had secured as a WM Tapp Scholar before a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in April 2024.

Speaking a year to the day on from her diagnosis, Elle is keen to promote young people joining the stem cell register in a simple process which will save lives. More information on the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry (formerly known as The British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR)) is on the website, plus Anthony Nolan and DKMS facilitate donations as part of their charitable work. Completing an online form is the first step.

“My prospects were very poor without the stem cell transplant,” says Elle, who had the procedure in August 2024, following three rounds of chemotherapy.

“But now I’m completely cancer free and I’m doing my PhD at Cambridge, I have a second chance at life. It was all because somebody was brave enough to join the register and give me that second chance.”

Originally from New Zealand, Elle completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Auckland, a Certificate in Transnational Law in Geneva, Switzerland, and a Master’s (LLM) at the University of Cambridge. She was working at the University of Vienna, Austria, when she fell ill. 

A non-drinker and non-smoker who was a keen runner and triathlete, she had tiredness, headaches and dizziness before visiting her doctor. The diagnosis was devastating.

“It felt like that was it, my whole life was gone,” Elle adds.

“It could happen to you, your friend, your sibling, anybody.”

“You never know what you can withstand until you have to, and there’s really no choice but to keep going. Any tiny bit of hope you can cling to is just everything. When you’re waiting for weeks in the hospital not knowing… if you knew more people were on the register, there’s more hope.

“It’s one day in the donor’s life. It’s such an easy thing that people can do to literally save someone’s life. Once I knew I had a donor who was a match, the end was in sight.”

In 90% of cases, donations are simply via a blood donation and a transfusion into the recipient. In 10% of cases, donors give a bone marrow transplant.

Having a place at Caius and an ambition to go into academia following her PhD provided a target for Elle, who is grateful to Professor Janet O’Sullivan, her supervisor, Dr Melissa Calaresu, her Tutor, Dr Rebecca Sugden, the Deputy Senior Tutor (Postgraduates), Dr Kate Miles and the Tapp Committee for their support. 

“I was supposed to start in October; Caius and the University let me defer. It was something to keep me going, and Caius has been nothing short of wonderful,” she adds.