STOCKBRIDGE teenager is celebrating New Year with renewed hope after a stranger gave her the gift of life, not once, but twice.

Eighteen-year-old Kitty Aplin-Haynes had only one wish for 2015 — to win her battle against a rare form of cancer.

After undergoing gruelling treatment for leukaemia in a hospital isolation chamber, Kitty longed for the freedom to live life to the full like most girls her age.

But the cancer, which had spread to her brain and central nervous system was so aggressive, her only hope was a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Now Kitty is recovering at home after the bone marrow transplant plus a second procedure to boost her immune system.

She has another reason to smile – her family and friends’ campaign to raise awareness of her plight will also save other lives as more than 130 people have signed up to the bone marrow register.

Cousins Emma and Sophia Parkinson, from London, helped add 111 donors to the Anthony Nolan register with their Spit for Kit campaign.

And a recent 200km “Marrowthon” which finished in Southampton raised £12,300.

Kitty said: “Many young people die waiting for a donor because only half of those who need a bone marrow transplant every year in the UK are lucky enough to find a match so I feel incredibly lucky.

“I’m overwhelmed my donor has donated his stem cells to me, not once, but twice. He is my hero and hopefully one day I will have meet him and say thank you for everything he has done and the opportunities he is giving me for the rest of my life.

“He has given me life, there really is nothing more important.”

Kitty was diagnosed with the rare form of leukaemia APML a week before her 15th birthday in 2011 after suffering a stroke.

She discovered the cancer had spread to her brain and central nervous system.

After undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatment in December 2013 at Southampton General Hospital, her family were hopeful she would be able to lead a normal life again.

But in February a routine bone marrow check revealed that Kitty had suffered a relapse.

Doctors told her she needed a bone marrow transplant plus a more aggressive type of chemotherapy.

When her sister Millie, 16, and brother Louis, 11, proved to be a negative match, Kitty’s cousins Emma and Sophia Parkinson launched the Spit for Kit campaign on Facebook, urging people to sign up to the Anthony Nolan bone marrow donor register.

On an unlucky date for some on Friday, June 13, an anonymous UK male donor was found.

Kitty was told she would be admitted on June 22 for the transplant and would need to spend six weeks in an isolation chamber with special filtered air to protect her.

Mum Kate, who cares for her daughter alongside her husband Rick, a film editor, said: “It was the fairytale news there was a donor, but it certainly was not a fairytale story about a beautiful young princess being locked up in a tower for weeks.

“It was a very real life-changing scenario. Unlike Rapunzel, Kitt did not grow her hair, instead her hair fell out and she suffered some gruesome side-effects that go with every stem cell transplant.”

Sickness, exhaustion, losing the lining of her mouth and her throat, therefore being unable to swallow, were just some of the side-effects Kitty dealt with.

She said: “I have become so much stronger. I never thought some of the things I’ve been through I would have coped with.”

Kitty says that the hardest times were witnessing friends she had met at hospital lose their battles with cancer.

“The count now is 15,” Kitty pauses with tears filling her eyes.

“And that’s all people I knew, of all ages. Some have had transplants, there were some who needed them but couldn’t.

“You become really close because you are on the same ward and you are going through the same thing so it’s very hard.”

Kitty returned home in August and now takes multiple tablets, and follows a strict diet. She must also stay at home or in hospital to protect her from infection.

Kitty said: “You miss out on going to parties, meals, shopping, concerts.”

Before Christmas, Kitty was back in hospital rceiving some top-up cells from the same anonymous donor o boost her immune system.

Despite being in remission, she faces an uncertain future with constant check-ups in hospital, but she is hopeful.

“They said I am doing really well,” said Kitty. “I’m sleeping a lot but the first year on is the big step.

“We’ve all said we are thankful 2014 is over because it has been a pretty rubbish year but this year will be better and I can’t wait.

“We’re planning things to do, days out, trips away, holidays.

“But I just can’t wait for the basic things like going out for dinner with a big group of girls, shopping in London — small things but so exciting for me because I haven’t done it for so long.

“Even just being at home, spending time with the cat, Mum, Dad, Millie and Louis, I do appreciate anything and everything I have got.”

To support the family’s bone marrow register campaign visit just giving.com/spit4kit.