Eight year old Oliver Baylis desperately needs to find a matching donor for a blood stem cell transplant that could save his life. The Horsham schoolboy was diagnosed with severe congenital neutrophenia, a condition that means he has no white blood cells, when he was just 4 and a half months old. His condition means that he has now developed leukaemia.
“When Oliver was first diagnosed, he was so ill that we were terrified he wasn’t going to make it,“ explains Oliver’s mum, Sharon. “Oliver’s brothers aren’t a match for him and after preparing to go into hospital for a cord blood transplant last week, we were told that the cord was no longer available.” Now there is no viable match for Oliver and his parents have been told that he can’t wait too long because his condition will deteriorate. “Our children are the centre of our world – donating would be such a small price to pay to give him a lifetime of health.”
Lynsey Dickson, regional recruitment manager for Anthony Nolan, said, “There are thousands of people like Oliver in desperate need of a transplant but we can only find matching donors for half of them. We particularly need men aged 18-30 to come forward as they are more likely to be asked to donate so could help us to save more lives. We urge people to find out more about donating as it’s much easier than most people think.”
To help Oliver or one of the thousands of patients desperately seeking a suitable match please join the register online or come along to one of our recruitment events. You can follow Oliver's story by joining his Facebook group Please Help Oliver.