News

A brave boy in need of a hero

It isn’t picky about its targets when tragedy strikes. Rich and famous, poor and needy, old and young, black, white and mixed race, we all encounter misfortune at some time in our lives.

Some of us are able to overcome with the support of family and friends who help us to pull through.

Unfortunately, it’s not on every occasion that our loved ones can provide the ultimate solution. That’s when we need an extended family.

For people who suffer blood disorders such as leukaemia and other conditions that require bone marrow transplants, that circle of dependence becomes all the more important.

The greater that circle, the greater the chance of finding suitable donors.

RACE SPECIFIC

Unfortunately, in such a complex biological matter, race is a very important element. Blood and organ donation is race specific. It is more likely to find a matching tissue type from within one’s own race. It stands to reason then that the fewer donors there are within a particular race, the less the chances of finding a donor.

Seven-year-old Keiton Knight needs help desperately. He has suffered with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia for three years. This has now progressed to acute myeloidblastic leukaemia (AML) He is now in the Royal Marsden hospital having intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Keiton needs a bone marrow transplant in order to make a full recovery. He needs a wide circle of donors because he is mixed race and the best chances of finding a suitable tissue match lie among the mixed race community. Unfortunately, the UK bone marrow registry has failed to turn up a match so far. His mom Paris Knight has launched an appeal in conjunction with the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) to try and find a suitable donor and save Keiton’s life.

Paris spoke to the Voice from Keiton’s bedside while applying his medication. Keiton’s discomfort is clearly audible in the background.

“Keiton has been having the strongest course of chemotherapy that a child his age can have. This has lasted over the past five days.

“His blood cell count has dropped drastically and we are all waiting for it to come back up. Because his count is so low he needs to have blood transfusions everyday.

He is on various antibiotics and preventative medicines.

In the last 24 hours he has had a very high temperature and he is suffering from severe stomach pains and diarrhoea.

Other times he bounces back to being ‘Keiton Bear’ (his nickname) and he bums around in the corridors on a little tricycle with other little lads inside the ward.”

Paris is a fighting mom. She is living in the hope that more mixed race people will join the register and become donors.

“I would like to put out a personal appeal to the public by asking people to come forward in order to save my son’s life. We are struggling to find a perfect match bone marrow donor for him. We need anybody that’s mixed race, one parent black, one parent white aged between 18-40 to either contact the ACLT or come down to one of the blood donors’ clinics to register. It’s not painful or time consuming so please help us. Even though black and mixedrace people are a minority in this country we still have a large population, which means we can help each other. Black and mixed-race people need to realise that their children can get sick and if they don’t register to become blood or bone marrow donors their children will die.”

The ACLT is fronting the campaign to find a suitable donor for Keiton.

For ten years, the (ACLT) has been working tirelessly to expand the circle of donors among the black race.

They have brought the issue of blood donation to the national agenda in a meaningful way and have had some successes. But despite their efforts, we continue to lose our loved ones to the dreadful diseases. Only this year we have experienced the loss of three great people – soul singer Lynden David Hall, DJ Swing and Martial Arts/Kung Fu World Champion Kevin Phelps.

Many people disregard the simple process of donating blood not realising the power they hold within. But just like our favourite heroes of comic books or films, people who give blood save thousands of lives everyday.

There are real-life heroes too, like Beverley De Gale and Orin Lewis, the couple who established the ACLT in June 1996 after their son Daniel was diagnosed with ALM at the age of six. Their fight to save their son’s life has helped to increase the number of black donors in Britain to 19,000 from 550.

Now celebrating their tenth anniversary, along with the triumphant recovery of their son, De Gale and Lewis are still flying the flag, campaigning for more people to register.

HEROES

Stressing the importance, Lewis told The Voice: “People need to look at their own sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and ask themselves if they needed a donor what they would want the black community to do?

Straight away they would be on the phone to ACLT for assistance and they would expect the black community to go and get tested because it suddenly affects them. If we don’t help ourselves on this one imitative that is race specific, we as a race will be attending many more funerals and other races will look at us and say I want to help you but I can only help my own.”

Although there have been many happy endings there have also been tears. Lewis said: “Beverley and I went to all three funerals this year and it was very sad to lose those great icons of sport and music but hopefully not in vain. They have inspired a lot of people to come forward and register and hopefully lives will be saved. All three have become beacons of light, encouraging others to save lives.”

Every year the ACLT stages the Gift of Life ball to raise awareness of the need for donations and to raise funds to conduct clinics. This year’s event will be held on Saturday September 16 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

It is a joint celebration of the 7th anniversary of Daniel De-Gale's successful bone marrow transplant, the 10th anniversary of the ACLT and the highlight of Keiton’s appeal.

There will be more than sixty-five celebrities attending to aid the cause.

Among them will be BBC presenter Brenda Emmanus, Hustle actor Adrian Lester, radio presenter Angie Le Mar, BBC and ITV drama actress Angela Griffin, singer Beverley Knight, Footballers Wives actors Chuky Venice and Caroline Chikezie, ex-footballer John Barnes and XFactor stylist Sinitta Malone.

Daniel De Gale whose remarkable recovery was aided by an American donor is now 19 and planning to go to university. He told the Voice: “Ten years... time has absolutely flown by. It has been full of ups and downs and a true rollercoaster ride, full of testing times that many individuals do not really experience throughout their whole lives. But what began as a worrying, negative scenario has turned into so many positives.

“I personally would like to thank everybody who has helped the ACLT's important cause by joining the bone marrow register or volunteering their time. But as always the work continues. If you haven't yet joined the register ask your self 'why'. It is such a simple process.

Just check out the facts and stop believing the myths.”

Radio presenter Angie Le Mar a strong supporter of ACLT told The Voice why she endorses the charity.

“When I look at Daniel De Gale and see what a healthy, handsome young man he has developed into it brings home why it is so important for our community to get it into our minds that we should give blood as part of our daily thinking. We desperately need to increase our blood donors register so we can help save more lives. Black people populate the world yet we panic when one of our members falls ill. This should not be the case. We have become lastminute.com donors when we don’t have to.”

Echoing Le Mar comments is BBC TV presenter Brenda Emmanus another consistent supporter of ACLT: “There is no knowing when a member of our own families or friends may be in desperate need of a transplant and we can only pray that someone is there in our time of need. Gone are the days when we can be reliant on others to constantly work towards our progress if we are not doing anything for ourselves.

Giving blood takes nothing but time and effort. It does not require major sacrifices, yet it can have a tremendous impact on someone's life - like give them the gift of life itself.”

Keiton’s uncle Warren said: “Keiton Bear is very cute, cheeky and naughty and he has a great personality, which helps him through his illness.

When we told Keition that he had to go back into hospital for further treatment he cried, kicked and screamed for two hours saying he did not want to die. My heart bled because I knew there was nothing that I could physically do to help other than raise awearness for a successful donor.”

Pleading on behalf of his nephew Knight said: “Anyone can make a difference. It needs just one person to step forward and contact the ACLT and become a potential bone marrow donor to save Keiton’s life.”

Orin Lewis said: “Keiton’s is one of the highest profile campaigns the ACLT has at the moment and we willbe highlighting his case strongly at the Gift of Life Ball. His situation is very complicated but critical because he is mixed race. We are looking towards black, white and mixed race people to step forward and volunteer to become potential donors and find out if they are the winning lottery ticket.

If you want to be a lottery winner you play a pound and you might get lucky. This is the same thing. If you give a tablespoon of blood you might get lucky and save Keiton’s life or any other suffer.”

Published: 04 September 2006
Issue: 1234

site comments powered by Disqus