Aplastic Anaemia, Sport and Me: A panel discussion

Tasha Townsend, Olympian 

Tasha was a part of the Team GB Olympic rowing team and after competing in the 2012 Olympic Games she retired from being a full-time athlete and became the assistant coach for the Oxford University Women’s Boat Club. In her third year of coaching she went to the doctors about her persistent mouth ulcers and was informed that she had aplastic anaemia and PNH. 

As her blood levels deteriorated, Tasha was feeling more tired and started to have less energy to train.  “To me this was the worst bit, from going from being a full-time Olympic athlete to someone that was getting out of breath on a jog was really upsetting.” 

In April 2016, Tasha received ATG treatment. During the recovery she managed to do some jogging and felt better, so she and her husband decided to enter the Reading Half Marathon, a year after her treatment – raising £6,000 for The AAT! 

Three years ago Tasha ran the London Marathon for The Aplastic Anaemia Trust. She now has had four children under five (after giving birth to twins this year)  - so we’re particularly grateful that she’s making time to join us for this discussion! 

Read Tasha's blog post here

Dan Ord, Youth bord member 

Dan is a member of The Aplastic Anaemia Trust Youth Board from Watford. He was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia in 2023 and received a bone marrow transplant earlier this year. He is still recovering and waiting for his blood counts to go up, but will be returning to study Maths at Durham University this September. 

Dan is a member of The Aplastic Anaemia Trust Youth Board and is passionate about hearing and sharing stories of people diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, to ensure different voices are heard. He is a fan of ultra-endurance athlete David Goggins whose story provided him with the motivation to keep active while awaiting a bone marrow transplant - lifting weights every day despite having low blood counts and a lack of energy. 

Harry Clague, Youth Board member 
Harry was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anaemia back in 2010 when he was just 12. He had had one course of ATG which thankfully led to a slow improvement of his blood counts and now, 12 years on, he lives a perfectly normal life, going in for check-ups every few months to keep an eye on things. 

He enjoys football, going to gigs and has recently gained two degrees in Politics from Nottingham Trent University. He has participated in the Great North Run four times, representing the Aplastic Anaemia Trust on all occasions and is currently training for the 2024 Great North Run. 

Shana Tribe, Specialist Rehabilitation Physiotherapist at Kings College NHS Foundation Trust.  

The King’s Cancer Rehabilitation service was established through the covid-19 pandemic period but it has been successfully funded and expanded to look at prehabilitation in both pancreatic cancer and haematology (pre-bone marrow transplant). The Pre-BMT physiotherapy pathway has been referred over 100 patients and the service also support haematology patients with their rehabilitation needs thus encountering many aplastic anaemia patients at different stages of their treatment journey.  

 Shana is currently the Research officer Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Oncology and Palliative Care. She is passionate about prehabilitation, health economics and working towards integration of exercise oncology being part of the standard of care for all cancer patients.