A Worcester girl suffering from a unique combination of illnesses needs a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible if she is to survive, doctors have said.
Three-year old Tia Pugh has an extremely rare form of immune deficiency called STAT1 deficiency. She also has a Tuberculosis-like illness called Mycobacterium malmoense and it is possible that Tia is the only person on the planet to be struck by both illnesses simultaneously.
Race on to save Tia Pugh, 3, who urgently needs a bone marrow transplant. Can you help? http://t.co/47s9G6kINf
— Anthony Nolan (@AnthonyNolan) February 6, 2014
Latest news on Tia
The national press have picked up on Tia's story, with stories in The Daily Mail, The Independent, and The Daily Mirror.
How you can help:
If you'd like to help little Tia, you can apply to join our bone marrow register here.
We're especially looking for donors of South East Asian and mixed-Asian heritage, so we need people to spread the word about donating amongst those communities.
If you're unable to join the register, there are lots of other ways you can help.
You can join the Anthony Nolan Facebook page here, and Tia's dedicated Facebook page here, and help us spread the word on social media.
You can give money to Anthony Nolan here and help us recruit more donors to our register, saving more lives.
More about Tia's story:
Months of trying different medicines, many spells in hospital - even a blood transplant before she had even reached two years old - have left Tia underweight and struggling to develop in a similar way to healthy children of her age.
For months, everyday her parents took Tia to the hospital at 7am and 11pm so that the drugs keeping her alive can be administered. Each day nurses come at 11am and 3pm to help care for this very poorly little girl. This week, mum Yupa finished her training by hospital staff so that she can administer the antibiotics herself at home.
Despite all this, Tia bravely clings to any normality she can get, singing and dancing along to Peppa Pig, The Muppets ‘Manamana’ song and Fatboy Slim’s Eat Sleep Rave Repeat whenever she has the energy and isn’t fixed to the intravenous line that she is fed through each night.
Now doctors say that she needs to find a suitable match for a stem cell transplant that offers her the only chance of cure. But her mixed heritage makes this harder than for many other people. Dad Nick is Worcester-born and Yupa is Thai with Cambodian heritage. As Tia needs to find a match with a similar genetic make-up, her relatively rare ethnic mix means that it will be much harder to find Tia a match.
In conjunction with Tia’s parents, Anthony Nolan is today calling upon as many people as possible to sign up to the donor register, to try to give Tia the match she needs. It is especially important that more people of South East Asian and mixed-Asian heritage sign up, as these people will provide the best chances of being a suitable match.
Tia’s dad Nick has called upon everyone to imagine if it was their child and help Tia as soon as they can.
“Tia is our darling little daughter and it is heart-breaking to watch her suffer like this. Now that the doctors have identified what’s wrong we can at last get moving on finding a cure. But we have to be quick, and that cure is out of our hands until we can find a match.
"All I can say to the people out there is please help us however you can, by signing up to the register or setting up a recruitment event in your area. Think how you would feel if it was your daughter, or your son, and you needed a stranger to help them survive. Childhood is supposed to be full of fun and joy, and that’s all we want for our Tia. Please help us help her, by signing up to the bone marrow register.”
Henny Braund, Chief Executive of Anthony Nolan, echoed Nick’s call to arms: “Tia’s situation is so difficult that it’s hard to hear about. But it is precisely this kind of circumstance that Anthony Nolan was set up to help with.
"Over the last 40 years we have seen thousands of caring, selfless people put their names on the register and thousands of lives have been saved as a result. Now it is vital that we get the message out, especially to the South East Asian community, so that we can find a match for Tia as soon as possible. Please help however you can.”
Find out how you can help people like Tia who are in need of a lifesaving match.
For updates on Tia’s situation visit her dedicated Facebook page.