A daughter's moving tale: How I gave my mum the gift of life

The fashion designer's GP gave her the devastating diagnosis the day her clothing collection went on sale in Topshop. The tie-up was the realisation of a long-held dream for Joanne, founder of Forties-and Fifties-inspired label Tara Starlet.

There are two ways of reacting to life's cruelties: to collapse or fight. And New Zealand-born Joanne, who in her ­heyday styled clothes for the Clash and the Pogues, is a fighter.

"My GP phoned to ask me to come to see her. She just said, I'm sorry. You've got leukaemia. Is there anyone you'd like to ring?' I didn't cry but went into shock thinking, This is so inconvenient on the day the collection goes on sale.'"

The first person that single-mother Joanne, 54, wanted to confide in was her daughter and fashion muse, Tara. The pair are exceptionally close. "Like an older and younger sister," says Tara, 22, who is a member of hip WI group Shoreditch Sisters, founded by Joe Strummer's daughter, Jazz.

Joanne also describes Tara as "my saviour", a reference to the fact she is the reason Joanne is still alive today. More than four years after her leukaemia diagnosis, she is effectively cured, thanks to a revolutionary treatment.

Leukaemia affects bone marrow, which is responsible for producing new blood cells. The disease triggers the production of too many white blood cells at the expense of red blood cells. Doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead took a donation of cells from Tara and used them to attack Joanne's cancer. A year on, she is in remission from her terminal illness.

Joanne was the first person in the world to trial this revolutionary treatment and the hospital has funding to treat a further 18 patients. The hope is that this cancer breakthrough will be used in mainstream medicine within five years. "Thank God I had Tara or I wouldn't be around now," says Joanne.

The fact that Joanne was able to have children at all was an achievement. Born with two wombs, Joanne was told it would be difficult for her to conceive.

When the designer first came to London 28 years ago, she lived in a commune. Friends included Pogues' singer Shane MacGowan — "lovely when he's compos mentis" — and Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay.

One of her first forays into ­fashion was designing catsuits for ­toddlers — infant Tara modelled them at markets such as Portobello Road. Joanne's break came when a Topshop buyer spotted her Forties-style frocks on a stall and asked if she would be interested in running a concession in the flagship Oxford Street store. Joanne jumped at the chance. But just a week before the big launch she started feeling unusually tired and her back ached.

"I'd had anaemia before, so had a blood test done. The diagnosis was completely unexpected." Looking at Joanne now, the only clue to her gruelling treatment is a small indent in her chest, where doctors inserted a Hickman line — the tube used to administer chemotherapy drugs.

Early last year, the prognosis for her survival was bleak after four rounds of failed chemotherapy. A search for a bone-marrow donor through the Anthony Nolan Trust had proved fruitless (bone marrow contains stem cells that can mimic any other cell in the human body. Bone marrow is taken from a suitable donor, cleaned, then injected into the patient. The new stem cells take over the production of the blood cells so they function normally).

Seeing her mother "so vulnerable" was hard on Tara. By her own admission, at first she "fell to pieces" — "I was drinking too much and got reckless." But she found an invaluable support network in Romily, Archie and Freddie Hutton, the children of former Vogue health editor Deborah, who wrote a book about coping with cancer before her death in 2005, aged 50.

"They were truly inspirational. The most difficult thing for me was being in a position where I had to be a strong person and my mother needed me to look after her. There were times I felt angry with the doctors when her remission was not complete."

With her mother lying in a hospital bed, Tara was left to handle their Topshop fashion concession. "I'd take the stock in laundry bags to Oxford Circus. At first I was like whoa!' but I think if you're not daunted by something then it's not worth doing."

Meanwhile, doctors had kept from Joanne the fact that they were running out of options. Then her consultant, Dr Panos Kottaridis, told her about a "killer cells" trial — effectively her last chance.

Natural killer (NK) cells are a type of immune cell. Everyone produces a ­certain number but their production is affected by cancer. It was Dr Mark Lowdell of University College London who discovered that patients who go into remission after chemotherapy develop NK cells. These cells kill only tumour cells, not healthy ones. Lowdell led the Royal Free team that developed the NK cell treatment and Dr Kottaridis was part of this team. ­Doctors did a blood test to check Tara had compatible NK cells. She had. So Tara was the natural choice for a donor. There was just one obstacle: her needle phobia.

On 31 July 2008, doctors at the Royal Free hooked a "shaking" Tara up to a special machine. This took the NK cells from her blood in a three-hour procedure. Doctors then treated the cells in a lab and transferred them to Joanne, who had already received a dose of chemotherapy to knock down her cancer.

The treatment didn't cure Tara's ­needle phobia. And there is the possibility that her mother may need a top-up of NK cells in future. But for now Joanne is making steady progress and Tara is ready for whatever is required of her.

"I'm still absolutely terrified of needles but I feel so proud that I could help my mother. I'd have done the same if it had been a stranger."
www.tarastarlet.com