TeamDylan says thank you for taking the time to learn about and support the Anthony Nolan charity.

Anthony Nolan exist to save the lives of people with blood cancer who need a stem cell (or bone marrow) transplant and Dylan was one such lucky boy.

Dylan's story is below, but this isn't about Dylan.  This is about raising money to help Anthony Nolan save the lives of children and adults who have yet to go through the incredible challenges Dylan has been tough enough to survive.  Dylan spent 16 months in hospital battling leukaemia and has met enough patients and families to know this isn't a problem that is going to go away without research, hard work and money.  Despite a very tough two years, Dylan is one of the lucky ones.

On Boxing Day 2014 aged just 6 months, Dylan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia totally out of the blue.  Dylan was 200 miles from home visiting family and spent the next 20 weeks in the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital.  The 8th May 2015 was a special day - we were discharged home in remission and had 3 months of a lovely summer feeling very fortunate that Dylan had come through a terrifying illness.

By the beginning of August Dylan had become poorly and we were told his leukaemia had returned.  After this devastating news had sunk in, we soon realised he would need a Bone Marrow or Stem Cell Transplant to have any chance of surviving.  After 3 months in Southampton Hospital, Dylan was again moved to Manchester where he had a Bone Marrow Transplant on 28 November 2015 - a date permanently imprinted on our collective memories.  The transplant donor was a lady in her mid-thirties but we don't know any more than that - although we can find out in November this year, 2 years after the transplant.

As a rule of thumb, paediatric transplant patients expect to be in hospital for 6-8 weeks, however Dylan's transplant came with a number of serious side effects (which included a 2 month stint on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit) and Dylan was finally released on the 8th July 2016 after 8 months living in the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital.

Families of transplant patients will know discharge isn't the end of the journey. Dylan had to endure many tough months of rehabilitation, both physical and social after spending many months of his life being isolated from other children.

13 months after his transplant, Dylan's nasogastric tube (nose feeding tube) was removed and he now eats and drinks like a normal little boy.

15 months after his transplant and aged 31 months, Dylan finally started walking for the first time. 

It is now March 2017 and 16 months after Dylan's transplant. His progress over the last year or so has been nothing short of exceptional, and it's all been down to the life saving transplant he received from the Anthony Nolan charity. We are aiming to raise a huge amount of money to help them continue to do their amazing work.