Shirley Nolan

Shirley Nolan or Shirley Oakey (10 February 1942 – 14 July 2002) was a British teacher who set up the Anthony Nolan Register to allow Bone marrow transplants. Her son died and she was diagnosed with Parkinson disease taking her own life in 2002. The charity she founded made transplants possible for 4,000 people.

Life Nolan was born in Cookridge in 1942. Her father was a soldier at the time and her mother was a bus conductor. She attended Pontefract Girls' High School and went on to Trent Park College in Hertfordshire. She married James Gerald Nolan in 1962. In 1969 she travelled in Australia accompanied by a British man named as Albert Edward Vidler. They were living together in Adelaide when Anthony Nolan was born. Shirley was teaching literature and her partner had a delivery business.

In 1974 she founded the Anthony Nolan Register,

Death and legacy Nolan died in July 2002 in Australia, aged 60, from an apparent suicide. She described her first attempt to take her life as "botched" and emergency medics created her recovery despite her written instructions. She was denied further painkillers but her friends knew that she intended to try again. Because they could not be implicated as accomplices, Shirley died alone using another cocktail of drugs. to use this blood in stem cell transplants.