Last year in July, Shilan Madurasinghe, father of three-year-old Camllie Malinsa from Tottenham, was given the news that shattered his world. His young daughter had been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) when she was just a little over 2 years old. AML is an acute form of leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, which accounts for less than 1% of all new cancer cases diagnosed in the UK each year. Camllie was treated with chemotherapy, however, relapsed last month, which means the AML has returned. She is currently being treated at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and urgently requires a stem cell transplant – cells from a healthy person, with the same tissue type – to replace and repair her own damaged cells.
Camllie had just started going to pre-school playgroup when she was diagnosed, and could not even articulate her suffering as she was still learning to speak in full sentences. Days after she started her kindergarten, the cancer came back. Owing to Camllie's Sri Lankan heritage, her match for a stem cell donor is mot likely to come from a person with the same ethnic background as her, i.e., Sri Lankan and wider South Asian community. Her father Shilan says, “We were devastated when Camllie’s leukaemia came back. We were told that because of her background it would be more difficult to find a donor, which is very unfair. I urge everybody from the Sri Lankan community to come together and join the stem cell register”. He added, “Camllie loves reading and running – we just want to see her play at home rather than in hospital.”
Sarah Rogers, Anthony Nolan’s Regional Register Development Manager for London, says: “As we support Camllie and her family as they search for a match it highlights the urgent need for more people from Sri Lankan and other minority ethnic backgrounds to sign up to the Anthony Nolan register. Camllie's amily are urging all who can, to sign up as stem cell donors following a simple process that can save a life.”
If you feel you could be a potential donor to save Camllie and other children suffering from rare blood cancer, you can register with Anthony Nolan or request a cheek swab test kit from DKMS UK. Anthony Nolan is the UK charity which finds and matches donors, of the correct tissue types, with patients who need stem cell transplants.
