Comedian Al Murray is urging people to sign the blood stem cell register after his nephew was struck by leukaemia.
Six-year-old Finley Relf has a rare and aggressive form of the disease and his only hope of a cure is a bone marrow transplant.
Finley’s parents Ben and Nicky Relf sought medical help after noticing that their son was losing weight. Al Murray’s partner Eleanor Relf is Ben Relf’s sister.
Finley was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia (JMML), a rare type of blood disorder that occurs in young children.
The youngster, from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, is having chemotherapy at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Murray told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: “Finley is undergoing chemotherapy but his best chance of fighting the disease is a bone marrow transplant.
“He has JMML, a super-rare leukaemia and 12 kids a year get it probably, and he needs a blood stem cell transplant.”
Murray said Finley was undergoing “gruelling” treatment but was a “chirpy six-year-old who wants to run around and go swimming”.
“He’s critically ill, there is a 50/50 chance of him surviving this basically, and without the transplant, there is no cure for JMML.”
Murray said Finley needs a transplant “before Christmas, this has got to happen right away”.
Registering online to be a potential donor with a swab just takes a minute
The comic known for his Pub Landlord persona urged the public to join the blood stem cell register.
“It’s like cleaning your teeth or picking your nose, it’s that simple,” he said.
Jonathan Pearce, chief executive of the blood stem cell charity DKMS, which is looking for a donor for Finley, said: “Even though we are working with Al Murray in very sad and serious circumstances, he is doing fantastic work with us to highlight that only 2% of the UK population are on the blood stem registry.
“We desperately need more people to come forward as donors if we’re to find a match for every person with blood cancer.
“Blood cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK, and at any one time there are around 2,000 people in the UK in need of a blood stem cell transplant.
“I would urge anyone between 17 and 55 and in general good health to request a swab kit from dkms.org.uk so we can help find a match for Al’s nephew Finley and all the other people that need one.”
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
