A woman from Pinner is urgently appealing to help find a stem cell donor for her husband who has blood cancer.
18-months ago, father of two Hedley Dindoyal was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins-lymphoma and is in desperate need of a stem cell transplant after two failed rounds of chemotherapy.
Hedley’s wife, Lucy, who previously belonged to Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue said: “Hedley, who is a British-born Mauritian, now urgently needs to have a stem cell transplant and because of his ethnicity, finding a suitable matching donor can be more difficult than it would be for others.
“In most cases, stem cell donation is a simple, out-patient procedure, similar to giving blood. We are not just specifically looking for a Mauritian donor, as a matching donor could come from anywhere, so please register whatever your ethnicity.
“It could give our family a fighting chance of returning to some kind of normality, with Hedley by our side.”
People from minority ethnic backgrounds have just a 20 per cent chance of finding a matching blood stem cell donor, compared to 69 per cent for northern European backgrounds.
Hedley said: “My hope in sharing my story is that it at least registers a beep on your radar and you might give some thought of registering with a blood stem cell registry. Anyone aged 17-55 and in generally good health who wishes to help can sign up using the link below and a kit will be sent out to swab your cheek, then you simply pop it back in the post.”
To find out more about Hedley’s story and to register with DKMS, a charity whose mission is to fight blood cancer, visit www.dkms.org.uk/get-involved/virtual-drives/hedley
0 Comments