#Match4Tommy Appeal – 4 Year Old Pre Schooler Needs Your Help After Being Diagnosed With Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML)

Good Afternoon Beautiful People, Happy Wednesday! As some may be aware, I am a trained volunteer, councillor and champion of The African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, a charity and cause extremely close to my heart for the endless work they do within ethic minority communities to save lives of those effected with leukaemia and other blood related cancers. I am interrupting your Wednesday to share an important story of Pre Schooler Tommy Simpson who desperately needs your help!

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Tommy Simpson is a 4-year old boy of Dual Heritage – White (British) and Black (Caribbean) who loves nothing more than playing with his toy airplanes and putting on his Dad’s uniform, pretending to be a fire fighter.  In January 2016, he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), after being admitted to hospital a few days before Christmas.  He has been in hospital ever since.

Tommy’s parents London Firefighter Nigel Simpson, 48, and Education Associate at Mary Kay Cosmetics (UK) Ltd Maxine Francis, 45, have launched an urgent appeal to find Tommy a potential lifesaving stem cell donor in the event his imminent test results reveal he will require an unrelated stem cell (bone marrow) donor to save his life.

Tommy’s mixed heritage makes it extremely hard to find a donor as matching stem cell tissue types are inherited.  People of a mixed heritages like Tommy have less than a 20% chance of finding an unrelated best possible match; as do individuals who are black or from a minority ethnic background.

There are only 3% of donors on the UK stem cell register who are mixed race, making Tommy’s chances of finding an unrelated donor extremely difficult! Tommy, who is an only child, is currently being treated at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. Extended family members were immediately tested, however a suitable match within the family was not found.

Tommy’s parents Nigel and Maxine say:

match4tommy-appeal-4-year-old-pre-schooler-needs-your-help-after-being-diagnosed-with-acute-myeloid-leukaemia-aml-tommys-parents“Tommy doesn’t have any siblings so the 1 in 4 chance of a sibling being a match doesn’t exist for Tommy. It is at best a 50% chance for parents to be a match for their children; this is normally a route doctors go down when they can’t find anything better. We know the window of opportunity for an unrelated match being found is going fast with each day passing; that’s why we are appealing for people to join the stem cell register now.  Particularly if you are White Northern European, Black African or Caribbean and mixed race (white/black), you may potentially be able to save the life of our funny and beautiful little boy”.

“We would like to say thank you to our family and friends for their support so far.  We are staying strong and are 100% focused on our beautiful son. He is being so brave; we are so proud of him.”

Blood cancer charity ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust) are leading the #Match4Tommy campaign by hosting donor registration drives to find an unrelated match for Tommy.

ACLT co-founder and blood cancer campaigner Beverley De-Gale OBE says:

“Twenty years ago ACLT was launched prior to us embarking on a 3-year national campaign to find my 8-year old son Daniel an unrelated match. The campaign was a success; Daniel went onto to become the UK’s first black individual to receive an unrelated stem cell donor. In the same way we were committed all those years ago to find a lifesaving donor for our son, we are committed to raise awareness on stem cell donation in order to find a lifesaving donor for young Tommy.  It is crucial members of the general public come together to help this vibrant little boy”.

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP to respond to this urgent appeal for donors to sign up to the stem cell register as you just may be the person to save a life for those desperately in need of a stem cell transplant like Tommy.

I am reaching out and using my social media platform to kindly ask all my friends, family, readership and fellow bloggers to help share this article amongst your circle and if you could perhaps go one further and register yourself if you have not done so already.

Please do not wait until a scenario like this to affect someone you know or love to pro-actively act…

Be The Change You Wish To See In The World by taking action TODAY!

For more information on the #Match4Tommy donor drives being scheduled, call ACLT on 020 3757 7700 or visit ACLT Charity website. To join the UK Stem cell register via the online process, please visit Delete Blood Cancer website