A TEENAGER who is fighting cancer for the third time will start tests next week to find out whether a bone marrow transplant has been successful.

Maisie Bulmer, from Salton, underwent the transplant at St James’s Hospital in Leeds in December.

Although she was allowed home last week following 84 days in the hospital, the 18-year-old needs kidney dialysis three times a week, as well as check-ups in Leeds each Wednesday.

Maisie said: "The operation itself was like having a blood transfusion and I don't remember much for a month or so after that as I was sleeping most of the time.

"I was really ill for three weeks and got a virus and the drugs they gave me stopped my kidneys working so I am now on dialysis."

Maisie said she had also suffered from severe mouth ulcers which had left her unable to eat.

"It has got better, but everything I eat now tastes really strange. I will try to eat something and it tastes disgusting."

Maisie said she had hoped to be allowed out of hospital for Christmas Day, but had been too ill.

"I had to have a lot of blood and platelet transfusions so they wouldn't let me home for Christmas," she said. "We still haven't opened out presents so are hoping to celebrate Christmas Day on Easter Sunday."

Maisie said that although she was now home she was very tired and found it difficult to walk far.

"Next Wednesday I go back to hospital for a scan and bone marrow biopsy to find out whether the transplant has been successful," she said. "I am nervous and just hope it has worked."

Maisie was diagnosed with cancer in May 2014, aged 16, when she found a walnut-sized lump in her neck.

After a biopsy at York Hospital she was told she had B-Cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

She finished chemotherapy that October, but was told on Christmas Eve 2014 the cancer had returned.

After further treatment, in April this year, she was told the cancer had come back. Last October, Maisie suffered a setback after three possible donors were found to be unsuitable only days before a planned transplant. however, a donor, a 38-year-old German man, was later found.

Maisie's mum, Wendy, said: “It has been a horrendous and traumatic time. It has also been a long, slow process and it is not over yet. We had no choice but to go through it or we would have lost Maisie and now we are keeping everything crossed that it has been successful.”