Your help is needed to save this little boy’s life

Toby Meyjes

Tommy Simpson, four, is battling leukaemia and his parents are looking for a donor match (Pic: London Fire Brigade)

Your help is needed to try and save the life of this little boy who fell seriously ill just before Christmas and is now battling leukaemia.
Tommy Simpson is only four and loves nothing more than messing around with his toy aeroplanes or putting on his dad’s uniform pretending to be a firefighter.
He is waiting on the results of a test which will tell him whether he needs a bone marrow donor to save his life.

The thing is, Tommy is of a mixed race background which means his chances of finding a good match are frighteningly slim.
His family have already been tested and a suitable match not yet found.
That is where you come in.

Less than 20 per cent chance

Tommy’s mixed heritage makes it extremely hard to find a donor as matching stem cell tissue types are inherited.
Mixed race people have less than a 20 per cent chance of finding an unrelated best possible match; as do individuals who are black or from a minority ethnic background.
Only 3 per cent of donors on the UK stem cell register who are mixed race, making Tommy’s chances of finding an unrelated donor extremely difficult.

His father, Nigel, who is a London firefighter, and mother Maxine are appealing for as many mixed race people as possible to become donors on the stem cell register.
Potential matches would be from a White Northern European and Black African or Caribbean heritage.
If you are, you may be able to save his life.
Tommy, who is an only child, is currently being treated at London’s Great Ormond Street hospital for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.