Alyssa Tapley received life-saving CRISPR treatmentAlyssa Tapley
When the bone marrow transplant failed to treat my leukaemia, it was like: this is it, there’s nothing else now. The doctors were telling my parents it was a matter of weeks. Not years, not months, but weeks.
I’d just turned 13, and I was thinking: “Oh my gosh, this is my last birthday. I’m never gonna grow up and have a family and do all the things that normal people are completely used to, like those normal, everyday things.”
But then we heard about the trial and went down to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. It was like sci-fi. They were like: “Oh, we’re gonna put some CAR Ts in, and they’re gonna multiply and multiply some more, and go around and fight and kill your all your cancer cells.”
It all started after Easter in 2021. When I went back to school after the coronavirus lockdown ended, I was really tired. I found it hard to walk home from school; I was falling asleep during breaks and lunches. Eventually, I was too sick to go to school.
