A St Albans mum with leukaemia has been recognised by blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan for her work raising awareness of stem cell donation among people from Asian backgrounds.

Meena Kumari-Sharma, who is 42 and the mother of twins, was diagnosed with the blood cancer in 2018 and told she would need a stem cell transplant to survive.

After struggling to find a donor, Meena and her family set up Match4Meena, which has encouraged more than 5,000 people to join hte international stem cell register.

On Thursday, November 28, Meena - whose leukaemia is now stable and not as aggressive - received a highly commended honour at an awards ceremony in the Tower of London.

She said: "It has been an absolute honour to be at the Anthony Nolan Support Awards, and we just need to keep sending out the message that we need more potential lifesavers to sign up to the stem cell register."