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Sign up and help to save lives

Eve Dugdale
11/ 6/2008

A SCHOOLBOY suffering from a rare form of leukaemia is encouraging people to sign up as bone marrow donors.

Jack Ormrod, 12, of Stockport Road, Mossley was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia after blood tests were taken when he broke his leg while kick boxing.

His family were told he would need a bone marrow transplant and tests revealed his older brother Liam was a perfect match.

However, doctors decided to put Jack, a pupil at Mossley Hollins, on a new oral chemotherapy which thankfully put him into remission. Inspired by Jack, mum Patricia, a midwife sister at Tameside General, decided to hold a bone marrow clinic for the Anthony Nolan Trust at the hospital on Tuesday.

She said: "At the moment Jack’s condition is being managed well with medication, but there may be a time in the future that he will require a bone marrow transplant.

"He is very lucky as his brother has been found to be a perfect bone marrow match for him.

"Around 30 per cent of patients requiring a transplant will find one from a member of their family, but the other 70 will have to ask the Anthony Nolan Trust to find them a donor.

"Jack is aware of how lucky he is having a match within his family, so now he wants to help all the patients that are not so lucky.

"The sad reality is that for many patients searching for a bone marrow donor there is just no match available.

"The simple truth is that the more people who join the bone marrow register, the better the chance of matching a donor for the 16,000 other patients who currently need a transplant."

To sign the Anthony Nolan register you must be under 40.

Those over 40 can volunteer as bone marrow donors through the National Blood Service. There is a desperate shortage of donors from Asian and African/Carribean ethnic groups.

To sign the Anthony Nolan register, visit the education and training centre, rooms F27 and F28, Werneth House, Tameside Hospital on Tuesday, 17 June from 10.30am-1.30pm.