KEY POINTS:
Four months after receiving a radical new cancer treatment, 53-year-old Joanne Scott is raging with the Irish punk rock band The Pogues.
The Kiwi fashion designer, now living in London, was the first in the world to undergo a treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia which involved transferring
blood cells from an offspring.
She 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. She prepared herself for death after chemotherapy failed and a bone marrow match could not be found. She was told she had only eight months to live.
But then doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead suggested a clinical trial using a technique devised by honorary consultant immunologist Mark Lowdell. It involved receiving an injection of "natural killer" (NK) cells from her 21-year-old daughter Tara that had been manipulated in a laboratory.
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 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. Joanne Scott is in remission but if the leukemia comes back she might need a repeated infusion of the cells.
After her story featured in the Herald in August she went back into hospital for five weeks because her neutrophils (white blood cells), an essential part of the immune system, were not working as a result of chemotherapy treatment. She still goes to the doctor twice a week, sometimes receiving blood transfusions or platelets (bodies derived from cells), but things are looking up.
"I've always been at work. I was still working when I was in my hospital bed."
Ms Scott moved her label into a new studio in Hackney in east London in October and launched a website where clothes can be ordered online.
Tara Starlet has expanded to the LF Stores chain in Los Angeles and New York. And it has star power behind it, with British soul singer Duffy donning several pieces at her concerts and American actress Mischa Barton being spotted shopping in Los Angeles wearing Tara Starlet shorts.
A former teacher, Joanne Scott designed clothes in the 1980s for The Pogues, British punk band The Clash and UK film-maker Don Letts.
The original singer and songwriter of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan, was Ms Scott's neighbour in London.
She even toured New Zealand with the band a couple of times.
"That's just the way life is, isn't it?" she said. "Getting into little scenes. I was always around the music industry."
She was well enough to say hello to her old friends at The Pogues' sixth annual Christmas tour last Friday.
"I feel fine, I've got lots of energy, I'm doing lots of things."
Ms Scott is spending the holidays with Tara, her niece and the son of a family friend.
"We're hoping it's going to snow. We're all going to stay inside and play games.
"We're all going to take some swing dance lessons from [friend's son] Daniel hopefully, watch the movies, go for a walk on the [Hampstead] Heath."
And her goal for next year is simple: "To get a lot stronger."
Tara, who is studying anthropology and media at Goldsmiths, a University of London college, and modelling for her mother's business, has started an initiative called Ethical Pest which encourages consumers to ask retailers about where their clothes come from.
THE TREATMENT
* 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.
