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A New Zealand woman who was given just eight months to live may have had her life saved by her daughter thanks to a radical new cancer treatment.
Fashion designer Joanne Scott was the first in the world to undergo the treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia pioneered by
doctors in London.
It involved receiving an injection of "natural killer" (NK) cells from her 21-year-old daughter Tara that had been manipulated in a laboratory.
The 53-year-old, who moved to London from Auckland when she was 23, was diagnosed with the disease three years ago on the same day that her clothing brand Tara Starlet was launched in British clothing chain Topshop.
Joanne Scott, a former teacher, had prepared herself for death after chemotherapy failed and a bone marrow match could not be found.
But then doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead suggested the clinical trial using a technique devised by honorary consultant immunologist Mark Lowdell.
NK cells are a type of immune cell that kill tumours and are present in everyone. Some tumours, however, are resistant to them.
Doctors at Royal Free found a way to turn them into tumour-activated NK (TaNK) cells, which are able to kill even NK-resistant tumours.
Tara Scott spent three hours hooked up to a machine taking her blood and the cells. Two days later, after the cells had been manipulated, 57 million were injected into her mother. A week later that number had multiplied to 137 million.
The cells circulate in the blood seeking out infections and killing them.
Tara, who is studying anthropology and media at Goldsmiths, a University of London college, and modelling for her mother's business, said she was apprehensive at first.
"I was really scared because we were the first ones. I didn't really have much faith in it working because I felt like I had nothing to go by, like I had no proof that it was going to work."
However, she said, in the end she was happy to help out her mother despite having "a bit of a needle phobia".
"But when someone who you love is in this kind of a situation you always want to help. Especially with cancer, people don't really know how to without getting in the way. So what better way to help than to do this."
Doctors will now treat 14 more leukaemia patients, and colleagues in the United States are hoping to use the same technique on breast and ovarian cancers.
Joanne Scott is now in complete remission but may need a repeated infusion of the cells at a later date.
WHAT ARE NK CELLS?
Natural killer cells are a type of immune cell that is present in everyone and kills tumours - but some tumours are resistant.
How do they treat cancer?
Doctors found a way to turn them into tumour-activated NK (TaNK) cells, which can kill even NK-resistant tumours.
How were they used?
NK cells were taken from the daughter, manipulated in a lab and injected into the mother.
