MP Penny joins hunt for bone marrow donor for baby Jasmine
Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt is urging News' readers to join her on the bone marrow donor register.
Miss Mordaunt is the latest person to give her backing to our campaign to help baby Jasmine Andrew.
As reported in The News, the three-month-old has a rare and potentially life-threatening immune-system deficiency and a bone marrow transplant is the only cure for her condition.
Miss Mordaunt joined the register in 2006 when we ran a similar campaign to find leukaemia sufferer Angie MacDonald a bone marrow donor match.
Thousands of people turned out to sign-up sessions in the area, and amazingly a match was found.
Miss Mordaunt is now encouraging readers to join the donor register to try to find Jasmine a match.
She said: 'I know being a donor is a worrying and daunting thing for some people but the benefits of it are obviously massive.
'A bone marrow transplant can mean the difference between life and death for some people.
'Being a donor is a way you can do something amazing. You could potentially save someone's life.
She added: 'This is a baby who needs help.
'I would encourage others to join the register too.'
The News launched a campaign to help baby Jasmine earlier this month after her parents told how she desperately needs a donor to help her overcome a life-threatening condition.
Since then News readers, celebs and famous faces around the area have given their backing. Jasmine's parents, Kerrie Curtis and Emmanuel Andrew, have been overwhelmed by the response.
They are spending virtually every waking hour at Jasmine's bedside in London at Great Ormond Street, where she is being treated by specialists.
Her condition was first noticed when she became ill with gastroenteritis, and her tiny body struggled to fight it off.
Doctors at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, diagnosed her with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID).
The tiny tot is even now still trying to recover from the stomach flu.
Meanwhile The News is in the process of organising a sign up session with the Anthony Nolan Trust, a charity which specialises in finding bone marrow matches. We are set to announce a date and venue soon.
All people will need to do to sign up is provide a saliva sample, which will then be sent to a lab in London where the tissue type will be noted. Then, if you are a match for Jasmine or any patient on the donor list, you will be contacted.
HOW TO HELP
Becoming a bone marrow donor is easy:
You can either register online or by calling Anthony Nolan.
You will then be sent a simple saliva-testing kit which you will need to return to Anthony Nolan.
That sample will be sent to a laboratory in London where staff will check which tissue type you are.
You are then put on the bone marrow donor register.
You could be a lifesaving match almost immediately, while others wait years before being asked to donate and some never are at all.
But the key is you could be the only donor in the world who could save a particular patient.
To become a donor you need to be: aged between 18 and 40, although once on the register, your details will be kept until you reach 60; in good health; and be fully committed to undergo the donation procedure if required.
To join the bone marrow register call the Anthony Nolan charity on 0303 303 0303 or visit anthonynolan.org
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
