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A patient with lifelong Crohn’s disease claims he has been cured after his sister donated stem cells .

Mark Adam, 22, suffered a severe form of the chronic digestive disease.

Big sister Louise, 24, volunteered for a stem cell transplant after Mark was hit with a second illness – the life-threatening immune condition haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

Her stem cells appear to have helped cure Mark of both diseases.

Mark was working as a tennis coach on a three-month trip to Australia when he became ill.

(Image: Cascade News)

Louise was identified as a 100 per cent stem cell match.

Mark, from Chester, flew home and the transplant took place.

As well as halting the rare condition he was suffering - HLH or haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis - it also wiped out the symptoms of Crohn’s disease, which he’d suffered since infancy.

Mark says he’s now living life to the full and “seizing every moment”.

“I never dreamt that I’d be cured of Crohn’s disease, but this has completely transformed my life now,” he said.

(Image: Cascade News)

“I have never been fitter and I can live something like a normal life now.”

Mark suffered a very severe form of Crohn’s and had to be treated with a high dose of steroids and to be fed intravenously feeding.

When he was eight he underwent a life changing ileostomy and he went through school with many other operations and flare-ups.

He said: “I never let my health problems stop me from living a normal life and seeing the world.

“When I left school I was at a good stage of health, I had travelled a little bit and also became a qualified level two tennis coach.”

When Mark became ill in Australia, doctors there carried out a series of tests on Mark to diagnose his problem.

Speaking of the transplant from his sister, Mark said: “I decided to do the stem cell transplant and my sister’s cells were a 100 per cent match to mine which meant I would have the ability to fight the illness off.

(Image: Cascade News)

“Louise was tested even before the stem cell transplant was discussed, but they had it there as an option but it turned out she was a 100 per cent match, which was absolutely amazing because I would have had to go on a donor list otherwise.

“She wasn’t fazed about it at all. The doctors asked her if she was all right about it all and she said it doesn’t affect her, just as long as I was OK.

“There was no uncertainty from her and she really is an amazing sister.”

Since the transplant, Mark is back into his tennis coaching part time at Mold Tennis Club and also works at a pub in the north Wales town.