|
New Hope for little Savannah
There's fresh hope today
for a seriously ill baby girl who's fighting a rare form of cancer.
Savannah Nicholls from Penzance desperately needs a bone marrow
transplant to survive. Now, after an appeal, a young woman has
proven to be an exact match.
It's the news everyone
had been hoping for. You wouldn't think to look at 8 month old
Savannah laughing and smiling that battling an aggressive and rare form
of Leukaemia, her best chance is for a transplant.
The
news of a breakthrough came in a phone call. Lisa Nicholls,
Savannah's Mum:"I cried. I think I went into shock. I was relieved but I
felt scared really quickly because i know now things are going to start
to move a lot quicker."
When none of Savannah's
family proved to be a bone marrow match local clinics were set up to
encourage people to be tested.
Now a match has been
confirmed the family are just waiting to hear when the treatment will
begin. It's a lengthy process that includes chemotherapy at Bristol's
Children's Hospital.
What great news! But there are
many other patients who are still waiting and hoping that a
matching donor can also be found for them before it's too late.
Details of the original appeal for
Savannah appear below:
Christmas baby needs YOUR help
now
Savannah Simmonds was the
first baby to arrive at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on December
25 2005. However the joy was shortlived for her parents
Lisa Nicholls and Zac Simmonds.
Her mother Lisa, who
lives in Penzance, first had concerns when her daughter needed
antibiotics for three chest infections that she contracted during the
first three months of her life.
 Lisa
said: "I pestered the doctor and asked for more tests to be done. She
was sent for a scan that showed her spleen was enlarged, then she went
for dozens of blood tests. On May 26 we were asked to come into the
hospital and told she had Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukaemia (JMML).
I wanted to run away
"I was devastated at
first and just wanted to run away, but I have two other little girls,
Chelsi, aged four, and Taila-Jade, aged two. I am trying to stay strong
for them on the outside, but on the inside I am finding it so hard."
The condition is an
extremely rare form of leukaemia that affects about two in a million
babies. Savannah's only long-term chance of survival from JMML
is a bone marrow transplant - but that is not a cure and there is
still only around a 50 per cent chance of survival.
Doctors are hoping to
carry out the transplant within a year of the initial diagnosis for the
best possible outcome for Savannah.
No match from
Savannah's family
Savannah's family members
have already been tested but no one is a match for Savannah and now she
is relying on a member of the public to be a match, and there could be
someone just around the corner who is.
Lisa said: "Through it
all, she's still been a very happy baby; she is always smiling and I'm
sure she'll fight the disease as hard as she can."
The fact is that Savannah
won't be cured unless she gets a bone marrow transplant. She now
faces a desperate future as her family search for a suitable bone marrow
donor.
Can you offer little
Savannah hope
Such a small, delicate
and beautiful little baby now depends upon a stranger to give her a
future. Could YOU be that stranger? There is only one way to
find out. And that is to get yourself tested and join the Bone
Marrow Register. Give Savannah and other little children who need
a bone marrow transplant hope of a future, hope of a life.
Please don't walk away.
Make a difference . . . before it's too late.
click here to return to home page
click here to find out how you
can register
|
