‘After’ is an inspirational portrait photography exhibition Anthony Nolan organised to link in with the charity’s 40th anniversary celebrations and Blood Cancer Awareness Month.
The poignant series of photographs by Stephen Pennells explores the journeys that 18 blood cancer patients faced after a bone marrow transplant. The result is a life-affirming exploration of self-identity, defiance, survival and mortality that ties in with the launch of our new book, also called ‘After.’We were kindly invited along and Rik actually featured in the gallery... there were many inspirational stories as we read the scripts accompanying the fantastic photographs.. including Simon Bostic, in 1973 Simon (in the blue blazer) was the first person to have a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor at just 21 months old. His story inspired Shirley, Anthony Nolan’s mother, to fly to England to look for a match for her son. This in turn set Shirley on her journey to create the world’s first bone marrow register... 
