A super fit man was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer after 60 per cent of his arm became covered in bruises.



Dan Joe, 31, suddenly started to feel faint and had "fuzzy eyes" but initially put it down to over-tiredness."

But when he tried sleeping it off he woke up feeling like he had done "10 marathons" and after a week of low energy he went to his GP."

A blood test revealed his bloods levels were very low and he had to be isolated due to his low immune system and give blood and platelet transfusions.

Doctors put it down to a virus but weeks later Dan had the same thing happen again.

He continued to go back and forth with low blood and he would also get bruises so bad 60 per cent of his arm would be purple.

Finally, after three years, Dan was diagnosed with myelodysplasia (MDS) - a rare type of blood cancer.

He had to undergo a stem cell transplant and slowly regained his strength and is now in remission.

Dan, who worked previously in banking and operational recruitment, from Rainham, Kent, said: "It got so bad - my arms were full of bruises."

"60 per cent of the length of my arm was purple."

"I had ulcers all over my mouth."

"My body was unable to repair itself."

"I was living week to week with blood tests."

Dan was very active - playing football, going to the gym and swimming - before he suddenly fell ill in early 2020.

He said: "I remember just being out and about on a shopping trip and I started to feel faint and get fuzzy eyes."

"I put it down to over-tiredness."

"But I felt worse after sleeping - it felt like I had done 10 marathons."

"It was just odd - it came out of nowhere."

After having no energy for a week Dan went to his doctors and his blood test revealed his levels were at zero and he needed to be isolated at the hospital as he had "no immune system"."

Doctors just presumed a virus had wiped him out but he started to deteriorate again about a week later.

He ended up in a cycle of having to go the doctors as much as once a week to get platelet transfusions.

Dan's immune system was so bad he had to shield for the whole of the pandemic and couldn't see his parents for a year.

He was hospitalised with pancytopenia - where you have too few red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets - in October 2021.

Dan was then referred to King's College Hospital, London, after a year of symptoms and was given a bone marrow biopsy.

They noticed his bone marrow was not producing enough cells and spent the next 18 months testing him to try and work out and rule out what was wrong.

They finally diagnosed him with MDS at the end of 2022 - which mostly affects people over 70 years old.

Dan said: "It was a relief for me."

"My brain was fully on treatment."

"It hit my family like a tonne of bricks - they couldn't do anything."

They tried him on different treatment methods, such as transfusions and steroids, before resorting to a stem cell transplant.

Doctors had left it as a last resort due to his age and the risk of graft versus host disease (GvHD) - where the graft reacts against the host.

After six months on the register Dan underwent a stem cell transplant in March 2024.

He had six days of chemotherapy in the lead up.

He said: "It was very traumatising mentally."

Dan also contracted sepsis when his Hickman line became infected and he spent six weeks in hospital.

He has spent the last year slowly recovering - and wasn't able to eat properly for the first six months.

He said: "I had no tastebuds which made it tough."

"McDonald's tasted like dirt."

He built back his strength doing yoga and stretches and is now back at the gym - but avoids cardio.

Dan and doctors now believes he had been slowly developing myelodysplasia since he was a child - and can now recall shivering for an hour after coming out of the swimming pool and collapsing at football.

At the time he hadn't thought anything of it.

Dan is now in remission but still takes medication and will need a test to see what percentage of the cells from the transplant are now the donors or his.