In September six year old Leland was given the lifechanging news he had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare blood disorder that causes the bone marrow to produce too many blood cells.
Leland’s MDS puts him at high risk of developing acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) meaning he is in urgent need of a stem cell transplant. Like three in every four patients in the UK, he has no match in his family.
#Join4Leland
If you're aged 16-30 you can give Leland, and other like him, hope for a second chance of life by joining the stem cell register.
Leland developed a cough that he couldn’t shake and, after a visit to his local GP, it was revealed that his white blood cells were not at the levels they should be. In a matter of months Leland went from being a happy little six-year-old who loved seeing Santa and spending Christmas with his family to being treated by Sunderland's haematology department.
Unfortunately, none of the family are a match and as a mum I am heartbroken to not be able to give this gift to my wonderfully brave boy. Please can I ask if you can spare two minutes of your time to sign up to the stem cell register – I would be entirely grateful.
Sarah, Leland's mum
Please donate today and help us make sure we can be there for patients like Leland.
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 Leland 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 Leland's.
£90 could pay for three hours of invaluable support from a post-transplant nurse for patients and families.