A LEUKAEMIA sufferer is to receive the best present of all, after learning a life-saving transplant will take place on her birthday.

Val Anderton turns 53 in a few weeks, and is due to have a bone marrow transplant from her younger sister on the same day.

News of the transplant ends weeks of waiting for a suitable donor for Val, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in January.

Val, who recently moved from Eccles, near Maidstone, to Rainham, said: "Some things are impossible to thank people for, and I know, underneath it all, she knows how grateful I am and wouldn't necessarily want me to express it."

Val, a page planner at the Kent Messenger Group's Larkfield office, and Joan, will go into King's College Hospital in London, on August 28, for the treatment.

* See the Kent Messenger (Friday, August 10) for the full story.