💛Anthony Nolan… a young boy whose legacy has given thousands of blood cancer and blood disorder patients hope.

Sadly his only cure was a bone marrow transplant but he didn’t have a match in his family so a search began for an unrelated donor.

The Anthony Nolan Register established in 1974 and today has helped 22,000 people receive lifesaving transplants which before this was impossible to do.

Sadly he didn’t find a match in time and died in 1979 aged 7….

💛In 1983 just 4 years later Jamie Todman my little brother was born…. He was handsome, he was cheeky and he absolutely loved his music.

Jamie was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia when he was 3 and needed a bone marrow transplant to save his life… sadly Jamie didn’t have a match within our family either but this wonderful register gave hope and a match was found….

With all transplants there is risk of it not working and Jamie’s didn’t so we tragically lost him just 12 days before his 5th birthday in 1988 💔

💛Every 14 minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood disorder or cancer

💛5 people every day need to search the register  

💛2000 people a year are in need of a bone marrow transplant 

💛Only 1/3 people will find a match within their family 

💛3 people every day are given a second chance  

But this could be more….

💛Only 3 %of people in UK are registered as stem cell donors

💛Of that register only 18% are young men 

So I want to raise awareness of Anthony Nolan and how easy it is to to register and donate. A simple saliva swab to gain your tissue type to be on the register. Then 90% of donations are done through a PBSC donation (through your blood stream) similar to giving blood platelets.

I also want to raise funds to increase the life saving work that needs to be done for research, to expand the donor register and the cord blood bank …(New mothers can donate their umbilical cords for transplant and research after safe arrival of their babies) 

💛Doing a 5k run in 2018 was a big achievement for me & in covid I got into to jogging every now and again….but I don’t have enough self motivation to do it regularly for myself. Committing to a half marathon for charity and asking you kind people to support will give me the motivation to get out of bed every morning to prepare for it..

I won’t enjoy the early morning training sessions, I won’t enjoy leaving the house regularly without my slap on or in trainers, I won’t enjoy doing it in the wind and rain! Not to mention I’m really not fit and get out of breath just walking up 2 flights of stairs …. My stamina will sure be put to the test! So please rest assured this will not be an easy task for me there will be tears, it will be tough but it’s a challenge I feel I want to achieve in memory of my brother …

I do recognise money is tight so just give what you can and while it isn’t till April I’ll need that pot going up to keep me motivated…But in all seriousness if you can’t give money you could give a piece of yourself 💛