Alana Matthews (née Kent), a woman with acute myeloid leukemia (or AML), fell ill in 2023 with what she thought was a bad flu and began to rapidly decline. Her best friend, Katie Powell, shared her story in an essay published by the British nonprofit Blood Cancer UK. Despite undergoing three months of chemotherapy, Alana's cancer returned that September, but she returned to the hospital to resume treatment, including participating in a clinical trial in Manchester, England. After a third remission, her cancer returned for a third time and by 2025, doctors told her that no more treatment options were available. Despite this, Alanna decided to marry her partner, Charlie, whom Katie described as "the light of her life."