For examples of success stories, please see below:-
Hollie’s Story
It was quite by chance that a GP noticed that something was drastically wrong with 6 month old baby Hollie, during a routine doctor’s appointment for her mum. Later the sameday, Hollie was taken to hospital and after several tests was diagnosed with a
potentially fatal disease, Infantile Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
Over the next six months, Hollie received several units of blood and went through a tough course of chemotherapy just to survive. To be able to fight the disease longer term, a
cord blood transplant was considered to be the best option for her and so a search of the stem cell registries began. A stem cell match was found in a cord blood unit all the way over in America and this was hurriedly despatched to the UK.
Thanks to the donated unit of cord blood, Hollie survived. And just two years after the
successful cord blood transplant, Hollie is an energetic, bubbly little girl who loves to be outdoors riding her pony Tiggy and playing with her friends at Pre-school.
The story of Titus
Harvey’s Story
Harvey began to show signs of suffering from asthma when he was only a few months old.
However, when his asthma didn’t respond to conventional treatment, further tests were carried out and at 9 months old, he was diagnosed with Hurler’s syndrome.
Hurler’s syndrome is a rare, life threatening disease and occurs when the body fails to
produce a particular enzyme and without treatment he would not have survived. Harvey began enzyme replacement therapy to try and halt the disease while the search for a stem cell match began.
It was hoped that a member of Harvey’s family might be a suitable bone marrow match for him but unfortunately no one was a close enough match. Thankfully though, a search of the stem cell registries showed that a match was available in a cord blood unit donated in Germany. Within weeks Harvey received his life saving cord blood transplant and was
home again just six weeks after his treatment.
xx Story
Alessia’s Story
At 10 days old, Alessia was taken to hospital with a severe skin complaint causing
her skin to blister and weep. When she didn’t respond to antibiotics, further tests revealed that she was suffering from Omens SCID, a rare life-threatening immune deficiency.
A stem cell transplant was Alessia’s only hope for survival and the search for a
stem cell unit began. The best match for Alessia was found in a cord blood
unit, which was collected 9 years previously. Alessia received her cord blood
transplant in February 2006 and she left hospital nine weeks later. The cord blood transplant was a complete success and Alessia is now a healthy, happy and active little girl.
