Dad's devastating fight after losing son to cancer as he says heartbreak 'destroys you'

Peter Colson has travelled the equivalent of five times around the to collect life-saving stem cells after tragically losing his son.

The volunteer for blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan started after James received two bone marrow transplants from a donor in but passed away aged just 13 in 2008.

Peter, 61, of Yatton Keynell, Wilts, has made 130 trips and covered 125,000 miles across Europe after he lost James to rare blood myelodysplasia.

He said: “It destroys you, but there’s an element that he had been through a two-and-a-half-year fight, and we were glad he wasn’t suffering any more. I remember being in hospital with James before his transplant. The nervous wait knowing we were totally reliant on one person, somewhere out there, to donate the bone marrow and another person to bring it back in time. Wondering what happens if they don’t deliver that precious cargo in time. And the relief we felt when someone told us the courier had made it.”

Peter has made trips to Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and , with just a 72-hour window from donation to transplant.

Peter and his wife Jayne, 69, an ex-pharmaceutical conference organiser, have received an Anthony Nolan supporters award for creating a website that shares travel information for stem cell couriers.

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