Sadlisz said: “My mum was quite emotional. The patient was a woman her age, so I think it meant a lot to her.
“It felt very full circle. Someone was able to help our family, and now I’ve been able to help someone else. It feels good to pay it forward.”
His father fully recovered and Sadlisz said the family treated his transplant date as a “second birthday”.
“It’s the day that he got his life back and was able to start over,” he added.
Paying tribute to Sadlisz for his “life-saving gift”, DKMS spokesperson Bronagh Hughes urged others to join the register.
“There are thousands of patients with blood cancers or disorders still waiting for their match, and we need more people on the stem cell donor register to give them the best odds of a second chance at life,” she said.