Give Our Dad a Bone campaign triggers rise in stem cell donors

A campaign on social media by three sisters trying to find a stem cell match for their father has triggered a doubling in new donors. 
   
Georgie, Emma and Sophie Ireland decided to launch the appeal after discovering no one matched the tissue type of their father Rob, 57, who has an aggressive blood cancer.

Three sisters who turned to social media in a bid to find a stem cell match for their father have caused a huge rise in new donors.

Doctors first discovered the former triathlete had the rare form of disease last June. Initial treatment seemed successful, but the cancer returned this year,

Mr Ireland’s only chance of recovery from the lymphoma is a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, but his tissue type is also rare so there is no match with anyone on the UK donor register. This leaves him with a five per cent chance of surviving, unless more people sign up.

The Facebook campaign by his daughters, “Give Our Dad A Bone (Marrow Transplant)”, has now attracted global support, since it launched last week.

Charity Anthony Nolan said the family, from Wimbledon in South West London, had triggered a large increase in donors signing up.

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Figures from the charity disclose that 2,221 people registered as a donor in the week the campaign launched compared with 998 the previous week.

The sisters said they were inspired to act by their father’s life-long positive attitude.

Georgie, 23, told The Evening Standard: “Dad’s always lived his life by turning negatives into positives and making people smile – and it seems his persistent use of the words ‘positivity’ and ‘initiative’ have actually rubbed off.

“We all felt helpless at first but then realised how simple it is to save a life by joining the Anthony Nolan register and we thought, wow, there’s something we can actually do to help. We never expected this level of support – Dad was blown away when we showed him the page.” 

Source The Telegraph