The parents of five year old Ryan Ferguson from East Kilbride have said thank you to the selfless donor who saved their son’s life two years ago.
In 2011, the Ferguson family was planning on emigrating to Australia when Ryan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). His parents were told that he needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.
We searched worldwide donor registers; a matching donor was found and Ryan had his transplant in January 2012. Ryan recovered quickly and recently his family was able to fulfil their dream of moving to Australia now that Ryan is well.
Two years after a transplant, the recipient is sometimes able to be put in direct contact with their donor. Paula and Stuart have now been able to say thank you to their son’s donor over email and hope to meet him in person in the future.
Stuart, Ryan’s father, says, “It was just incredible to be able to say thank you to the man who saved our son’s life – what an amazing person he is. The donor has children and is a doctor, so he can appreciate what we were going through.”
Ryan’s donor, Eike Tjarks, is a thirty six year old German paediatrician. Eike joined a German bone marrow register in 2006 when he was helping to recruit donors during an appeal for a young local girl who had leukaemia.
Donor Eike and his wife Tanja
Eike says, “We have thought a lot about our unknown bone marrow recipient over the last two years and always hoped that he made it and he's fine. We were all hugely delighted when we heard that Ryan is a healthy, happy five-year-old boy with a great family.”
Ryan’s story inspired thousands of people to join the bone marrow register, including an incredible 1074 people in one day. The Ferguson family has raised tens of thousands of pounds for Anthony Nolan to help other people in need of a bone marrow transplant.
Donate today to help recruit more donors to our register. With more donors, we can save more lives like Ryan's, and keep more families together.