Who you could help
Harvey was diagnosed with a rare, life threatening disease, called Hurler's syndrome.
Without treatment he would not have survived.
Harvey began to show signs of suffering from asthma when he was only a few months old.
However, when his asthma didn’t respond to conventional treatment, further tests were carried out and at 9 months old, he was diagnosed with Hurler’s syndrome.
Hurler’s syndrome is a rare, life threatening disease and occurs when the body fails to produce a particular enzyme and without treatment he would not have survived.
Harvey began enzyme replacement therapy to try and halt the disease while the search for a stem cell match began.
A search of the stem cell registries showed that a match was available in a cord blood unit in Germany.
It was hoped that a member of Harvey’s family might be a suitable bone marrow match for him but unfortunately no one was a close enough match.
Thankfully though, a search of the stem cell registries showed that a match was available in a cord blood unit in Germany. Within weeks Harvey received his life saving cord blood transplant and was home again just six weeks after his treatment.
We hope Bilal’s cord blood will save someone’s life.Laura
Bilal's mum
Laura was very keen to donate her baby’s cord blood after seeing the leaflet in her hospital’s ‘Booking In’ pack.
"I discussed donating our baby’s cord blood with my husband and we both knew immediately that it was something we wanted to do.
"We hope that one day our decision to donate Bilal’s cord will save someone’s life or help with research into finding a cure for illnesses that some children face."
