Could you save little girl's life? (From Herald Series)

Abingdon parents have weeks to find bone marrow donor to save 15-month-old daughter's life

2:44pm Monday 10th January 2011 in News

“WE have just weeks to save baby Amber’s life and we need your help.”

That’s the plea from the parents of the 15-month-old, whose leukaemia returned aggressively just as she looked set to make a recovery.

Now there are just weeks to find a bone marrow donor to help save the youngster’s life.

Amber was diagnosed with leukaemia in October and had been set to make a recovery following treatment at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

But, on New Year’s Day, after a peaceful Christmas spent with her family, the toddler’s condition took a turn for the worse and doctors discovered the illness has returned aggressively.

Experts have said a bone marrow transplant would be her last chance of a full recovery.

The family featured in the Herald last month when father James Phillpott told about his fundraising exploits for Oxford Children’s Hospital before finding out about his own daughter’s condition.

Now Mr Phillpott and partner Fleur Tinson, of Abingdon, have got just weeks to find a donor.

The couple are appealing to Oxfordshire people to sign up to the transplant register in the hope of saving their little girl’s life.

There are currently 7,337 donors on the Anthony Nolan register in Oxfordshire.

Father-of-two Mr Phillpott said he had been told the most likely match for Amber would be Amber’s four-year-old sister, Daisy.

But even this only holds just a 25 per cent chance of a match.

Mr Phillpott said: “To be honest it is a bit of a moving target at the moment.

“It depends on the next eight weeks and on the doctors getting Amber’s leukaemia into remission.

“And then we need to find a donor.

“We have been told because we live here and have roots here it is more likely that we will find a match who already lives in Oxfordshire.

“We just want as many people as possible to sign up. If it can’t help Amber, then at least someone, somewhere will benefit from it.”

Keyboard player Mr Phillpott is the founder of Abingdon’s annual Yeah Baby! festival, which has raised more than £6,000 for Oxford Children’s Hospital. He came up with the idea for the festival which has been held in the town for the past two years when his friend’s son was given life-saving treatment at the hospital.

But, in a cruel twist of fate, just months later he, too, was forced to call on the life-saving unit to help his seriously-ill baby daughter.

Leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow, which causes an abnormal amount of white blood cells to get into the blood stream.

If left untreated, the sufferer will not survive because their blood supply will not function properly.

Mr Phillpott and Ms Tinson have appealed for people to sign up to the Anthony Nolan register as soon as possible, not just for their own daughter, but also for others like her.

He said: “The more people that sign up, the more chance we have of finding a donor.

“And not just for Amber, but for hundreds of other people in her situation.”

l To sign up to the bone marrow donor register to help Amber and others like her, log on at: www.anthonynolan.org and click ‘join the register’.