You could give someone like Michael another chance to live.
For the last year 64-year-old Michael has been feeling unwell and tried several different courses of antibiotics to treat what he thought was an infection. But just before Christmas the driving instructor received the devastating news that he had chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia – a rare form of blood cancer. Now Michael has been told he needs a lifesaving stem cell transplant and is desperately searching for a matching donor. So far no match has been found.
Having discovered that his Greek Cypriot heritage makes it even harder to find a match, Michael and his family are calling on more people to sign up to the stem cell register – from the Cypriot community and beyond. The more potential donors standing by to save lives, from as many different backgrounds as possible, the more chances of finding a lifesaving match there are for every transplant patient like Michael.
Michael said: “I want to raise awareness and not just to find a match for me, it’s about other people that are from an ethnic minority, so it could help others in the future. If someone is thinking of joining the stem cell register, if you are in good health, do it. It only takes a few seconds, just go for it and do the swab test.”
How can you help?
Between 16 and 30? Help save the life of someone like Michael by joining the register today.
Could you help fund a lifesaver? Donate today.
Make a donation
A gift of £5 a month helps build a stem cell register that gives everyone the best chance of survival.
A gift of £10 a month helps lifesaving transplants to happen – giving as many people, like Michael, as possible a second chance of life.
A gift of £15 a month could help pay for our umbilical cord collection programme – making little lifesavers of babies only minutes old!
£15 goes a long way to helping our scientists conduct ground-breaking research that will save lives over the next 50 years.
£40 could sign up a new lifesaving stem cell donor who could go on to save a life like Michael's.
£90 could pay for three hours of invaluable support from a post-transplant nurse for patients and families.
It was a shock for me and my brother when we found out. It’s made us all very anxious and scared. It’s a lot for us to deal with as a family. It's sort of like a waiting game which is making us want to drive this even more. It's not just about helping your own family; you're helping others who need a match. There are so many people in the community and across the world that need this support.
Michael’s daughter Ellianna
#MichaelsStemCellDrive
Between 16 and 30? Help save the life of someone like Michael by joining the register today.