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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Connor Lynch

Family's desperate appeal for people to join bone marrow register to save life of eight-year-old son

A Co Armagh family are appealing for people to join the bone marrow donor register in an effort to save their eight-year-old son who has been battling leukemia.

Last May, Bobby Browne was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia after he had been sick for a number of months prior and quickly began a course of chemotherapy for six weeks.

Sadly, this treatment was unsuccessful and the young boy had to start another more intensive course of chemotherapy, which also did not work for Bobby, leaving his worried family looking for answers.

Read more: More than 1,000 sign petition in support of North Belfast mum in need of lung transplant

The family were given a lifeline when Bobby was accepted to have CAR T cell treatment before Christmas, which is a new treatment designed to reprogramme the body's immune system in order to fight the cancer.

A few weeks later they discovered that the treatment had taken hold in Bobby's body and his parents were optimistic that he was going to be on the right track to recovery and eventually he went into remission.

However, they received another blow when they found out that the treatment had not stayed in his body for the length of time necessary, six months, and there is now a high chance that his cancer could return, meaning the only option left for Bobby is a bone marrow transplant.

Speaking to Belfast Live, his father Danny said they are desperate to find a donor for their son and that he needs to find someone who is a "perfect match" due to the rarity and severity of his leukemia.

He said: "Over the past year Bobby has been so brave going through his treatments and is determined to get better and fight this cancer, but sadly everything that we have tried doesn't seem to be working.

"While he is now in remission, because the CAR T treatment didn't last as long as we had hoped, there is a good chance that the cancer could return and the only option that we have left is securing a bone marrow donor for him.

"Due to the type of leukemia he has, only a perfect donor is going to be suitable for him and we are desperate to secure that so Bobby is able to live the life that he deserves.

"As a result we are appealing to everyone to join the bone marrow register in the hopes of giving him a fighting chance with a transplant.

"Nobody knows who the hero is going to be, but we are determined to find one so that our little boy can be saved. We will keep pushing and pushing this until we can get as many people to register as possible.

"We would be hugely grateful to anyone who takes the time to do so, because all other doors have been closed on us and we now have nowhere else to turn."

If you are interested in helping Bobby and his family, you can join the bone marrow register via these links:

https://www.anthonynolan.org/help-save-a-life/join-stem-cell-register

https://www.dkms.org.uk/register-now

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