Leukaemia survivor swims to gold

Leukaemia survivor Maarten van der Weijden's Olympic gold was a "remarkable" achievement, according to a British expert in blood cancer.

The Dutchman, 27, was diagnosed with leukaemia - cancer of the bone marrow and white blood cells - in March 2001.

But following a stem cell transplant, the 6ft 7ins swimmer returned to international competitive sport five years ago and became the Olympic 10km open water champion at Beijing on Thursday.

Professor Ghulam Mufti, professor of haemato-oncology at Kings College London, said the swimmer had achieved a great feat to return to the "super-peak" of health.

He said: "This is remarkable. It's absolutely fantastic - it's amazing."

All blood cells are produced in bone marrow, a spongy material that is found inside bones.

It produces stem cells, which create infection-fighting white blood cells, along with red blood cells and platelets.

Acute leukaemia, such as that suffered by van der Weijden, means the bone marrow releases a large number of immature white blood cells.

These "blast cells" disrupt the normal balance of cells in the blood and make the patient more vulnerable to infection.

"He's a fantastic advert for transplants," said Prof Mufti. "This really does show how successful transplantation is in this day and age. It's really life-saving - it brings normality of life afterwards."

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