David Tennant And Catherine Tate Show Support For Stem Cell Donor Appeal



David Tennant and Catherine Tate have joined forces to show their support for an appeal to find a stem cell donor for a little girl who is battling leukaemia.

London toddler Margot Martini, aged sixteen months, is currently undergoing her third bout of chemotherapy in her fight against the disease, but doctors have advised her parents that a blood stem cell transplant will increase her chances of seeing the cancer off for good.They have launched the Swab For Margot appeal asking people to attend donor days in London and Wolverhampton or to register online to send off for a simple swab test to see if they could be a match for Margot or for other sufferers of blood cancers.

Although Margot lives in London, the register of potential donors is worldwide, so it is essential that as many people as possible sign up, no matter where they live. 

Watch the appeal video here:




Margot's father Yaser Martini has issued this appeal statement:

It could be my daughter Margot's, or someone else's. 

Register. Swab. Save a life.
You can make a real difference this Christmas. It only takes a few minutes and you could save a child's life.

Margot was diagnosed with Leukaemia on 7 October 2013, at just 14 months old. On arrival at Great Ormond Street Hospital she required an immediate exchange transfusion (new blood) and initially spent ten days in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit on life support.
Margot has an extremely rare form of blood cancer which has dual lineage - both Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). The consultant haematologist told Margot's family that he has only seen three such cases in the last ten years.

Margot needs a stem cell donation from someone with a similar tissue type as hers, in order to survive.

If you're aged 17-55 and are in general good health, a simple swab of your cheek will tell if you're a match and you could save the life of Margot or someone just like her.

Caroline Portlock of Delete Blood Cancer UK said "Many blood cancer patients can only survive if, somewhere in the world, someone with the same tissue characteristics in their blood is willing to donate some stem cells (sometimes called 'bone marrow' because they originate and are formed in our bone marrow). That is why every single new donor counts, since it is very rare that two people have almost identical tissue types. The more people that sign up to join the register, the more people can be matched together, and the more lives can be saved".

UK residents should visit: http://www.deletebloodcancer.org.uk/b...to register - it only takes 5 minutes and you can save a life. It could be my daughter's. When asked "how did you hear about us", please select 'Team Margot' from the drop-down box to enable us to track registrations we have generated.

For anyone outside the UK wishing to register as stem cell donors, please visit http://www.bmdw.org/index.php?id=addr... and select your country to find your local donor registration organisation.

Let's stand together against blood cancer.

Register. Swab. Save a life.

On behalf of Margot and all her family: Thank you.

Yaser Martini

Email: info@teammargot.com
Twitter: @swab4margot
Facebook: Team Margot

Source: ITV


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