Family of Northampton seven-year-old with leukaemia call for more lifesaving stem cell donors

The family of a seven-year-old girl with blood cancer, who is also recovering from Coronavirus, are calling for more people to sign up as potential stem cell donors, with blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan.

Sophie, who is seven-years-old and from Northampton, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in June 2017 when she was just four-years-old.

She completed her chemotherapy treatment in October last year. However, just three months later, her family received the devastating news that Sophie’s cancer had not only returned but had now spread to her central nervous system, affecting her vision and mobility.

Sophie now needs a stem cell transplant if she is to be cured but her ethnicity makes finding that match more difficult, the charity says.

Sophie’s dad, Colin, said: "Because Sophie is mixed race, we did suspect that there wouldn’t be a perfect match for her. Sophie has found a 9/10 match, which isn’t ideal but is potentially good enough to proceed with transplant, however a 10/10 would give her the best chance.

"It’s so simple and easy to take the first step in joining the register, it’s just a cheek swab.

"You could save a person’s life, not in an indirect way, but by actually being the most important contributor in saving someone’s life. That is something that most people never have the chance to do."

To add to the family’s already difficult situation, following the return of Sophie’s leukaemia, she also caught Coronavirus. The virus, combined with the treatment Sophie was receiving to fight her leukaemia, made Sophie seriously ill and she had to be placed in an induced coma in intensive care.

Her mum, Emily, said: "Within a few days of starting a new treatment for leukaemia Sophie started to experience a fever and her breathing started to deteriorate.

"After six days of the new treatment, her breathing had deteriorated so much that she had to be ventilated and put into an induced coma.

"The doctors think that Sophie's condition is likely to have been due to the combined effects of coronavirus and the drug being used to treat her leukaemia."

On day eight, the doctors began to wake Sophie and they were able to remove her ventilator.

It is now over five weeks since Sophie woke up from the induced coma and the recovery process is extremely slow.

To start with she couldn’t walk and hardly spoke but she can now walk short distances using a frame and her speech has improved.

Sophie is currently going through a rehabilitation phase so that she can recover from the induced coma. She will need to complete this recovery phase to put her in a position to receive a stem cell transplant.

Sophie’s younger sister is unfortunately not a stem cell match for her sister.

Anthony Nolan have searched their register for the special stranger who could give Sophie a second chance of life, however there is currently no perfect match.

Transplant recipients have a 69 per cent chance of receiving the best possible match, however this drops dramatically to around 20 percent if you're from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background.

To find about more about joining the Anthony Nolan register, or to find out more about the different ways you can support, please visit www.anthonynolan.org/match4sophie