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Please help our baby Jasmine
THE parents of a seriously-ill baby today called for help to save their tiny daughter from a life-threatening condition.
Three-month-old Jasmine Patsy Andrew was born with a rare and serious immune system deficiency.
It has left her vulnerable to infections and viruses and her parents Kerrie Curtis and Emmanuel Andrew are frightened to even take their daughter outside.
The only cure for her condition is a bone marrow transplant.
So today The News is launching a campaign to help find Jasmine a match, with the backing of the Anthony Nolan Trust - a charity which specialises in finding bone marrow transplant donors.
Along with Jasmine's family, we are calling on readers to join the bone marrow transplant register.
Kerrie, 24, of New Road, Buckland, Portsmouth, said: 'We really need people to come forward.
'We desperately need to find Jasmine a match and need people's help.
'Even if you are not a match for Jasmine, you could be for someone else.'
Jasmine was a healthy, happy baby for the first few weeks of her life.
But she then became very ill with gastroenteritis and her tiny body could not fight the bug.
It was then doctors diagnosed her with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), which means she is unable to fight infection.
Professor John Goldman, medical director at Anthony Nolan and professor of haematology at Imperial College London, said: 'The condition is very, very rare. Only about one in 100,000 babies are born with it, possibly even fewer.
'It is a very serious condition and a bone marrow transplant is considered to be the only cure.'
Jasmine is at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where she is being treated by specialists.
Her family have rallied round the tot and her parents, and are determined to help find her a bone marrow match.
Nan Sarah Curtis, 42, from Portsmouth, said: 'We are so desperate to find a match. My grandson Jack, who's only six, has even said he will donate and Jasmine can have half his bone marrow.
'We would be so grateful if people could come forward and see if they could help Jasmine.'
Kerrie's aunt, Tammy Braddick, 44, from Havant, said: 'The fight that little girl has got on her hands is unbelievable so we will do whatever it takes to find her a match.'
Finding a bone marrow match for Jasmine is also made more difficult because she is mixed-race - her father is black.
But donors do not need to be mixed-race to be a match. Anthony Nolan are set to organise special sessions in Portsmouth for people to attend and become donors.
In the meantime people can join the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register online at anthonynolan.org or by calling 0303 303 0303.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 10 February 2012
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