As Asian Voice reported on page 2 of it’s 18th January issue parents of 3-year-old Veer Gudka are desperately searching for a stem cell donor.
The boistrous 3 year old from Harrow was diagnosed with Fanconi anaemia - a rare genetic disease that puts him at risk of cancer as it reduces the number of blood cells created by the body - in December 2018 after having became very lethargic.
His parents Nirav and Kirpa are continuing their appealing for more Asians to sign up as stem cell donors and are working very closely with blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan, to raise awareness and diversify the stem cell register which they hope will give their little boy a fighting chance of finding the best possible donor.
Speaking to various media outlets about the diagnosis Nirav said: “The news came to us as a big shock. We were distraught. Our otherwise perfect little world was turned upside down.”
Doctors treating Veer say that his best chance of survival would be to have a stem cell transplant to help reboot his body’s ability to make blood. His parents and five-year-old sister Suhani were found not to be a match and no matching donors are currently on the register. As he is of Asian descent, his chances of finding a match are only 20 per cent, compared with 80 per cent if he was Northern European.
To find out more on how to help Veer please log on to: www.anthonynolan.org/HelpVeerNow, www.helpveernow.org or https://www.facebook.com/he
