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Could you be a match for Margot?

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KateMumsnet · 30/01/2014 20:07

I love these pictures. They were taken in our garden on a sunny afternoon in the summer when Margot was a little over a year old, and was crawling around on the lawn. She was in typically smiley mood and was sporting a new dress and wearing a bow in her hair, which has become her ‘signature look’. We had a really good laugh rolling around the lawn that day, and she was thrilled to be sitting on her brother’s tractor and smiling for the camera. She’s the little girl we always dreamed of - and we felt so lucky.

I also love them because it reminds me of a time before Margot became desperately ill with a rare form of leukaemia. A short while after these pictures were taken she'd thrown up - become dreadfully bruised and very, very pale; soon after that we discovered that Margot has what is called a 'dual lineage' leukaemia. This means she has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street hospital say they have only seen three such cases in the past ten years. One moment we were all playing in the garden. The next, we were in paediatric intensive care, watching our daughter struggle for life; tubes everywhere.

After various rounds of tests and chemotherapy, the doctors at Great Ormond Street told us our best chance of beating the disease is a bone marrow transplant (also known as a stem cell transplant).

Finding a donor is itself is a lottery - but Margot’s case has been made much harder because of our multi-cultural background. Her genes and tissues come from are a wonderful rich mix – my family is from England and New Zealand, and my husband Yaser’s family from Syria and Thailand and Scotland. It means the chances of find that perfect match are tougher than ever.

We're by no means the only ones - thousands of ethnically-mixed families across the world are finding it harder than ever to find a genetically comparable match. We have all moved around a lot in the past hundred millennia, but genes tend to be even more mixed within the black and Asian community, simply because of the variety of continents people have migrated to and from. But in the UK only 6 per cent of those on the registry currently are of a black and ethnic minority - something Delete Blood Cancer UK are working hard to raise awareness about in various ethnic communities.

Margot’s match does not have to have exactly the same combination of ancestors as us - that would be very hard to find. It just has to be a match - so it could be anyone from anywhere, which is why we are pleading with you to register with Delete Blood Cancer UK.

It will literally take just five minutes of your time: you’re sent a simple DIY swab kit, which has long sterile cotton buds that you rub gently on the inside of your cheeks. These go back in to the envelope provided for return to Delete Blood Cancer UK, and a short time later you then become part of a worldwide database of benevolent people who may be called upon to donate blood stem cells. If you are approached to be a donor, it’s all anonymous and you stay on the register until your 61st birthday.

We’ve - please do share it. We want as many people as possible to come together to support and fight for our feisty little girl and others who have blood cancer. It only takes one person to save a life.

The doctors tell us that our chances of finding a perfect match for Margot are really very slim, but we believe that a slim chance is better than no chance. As any parents would, my husband and I feel we need to do everything we can for Margot, and others like her. I don’t want to look back and think we have not done everything we possibly could.

I know you are all so busy - but if you could register and swab, we would be so grateful. Or, if you live in the area, we'd love to see you at one of our forthcoming donor drives in London or Wolverhampton.

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Tootsgirl · 31/01/2014 16:48

I'm mixed race too and have just registered. Hoping you can find a match for your little girl.

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Could you be a match for Margot?

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