5-year-old Oscar Saxelby-Lee was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in December 2018.
He has now a fighting chance at life after thousands of people registered to become stem cell donors.
His parents, Jamie Lee and Olivia Saxelby, found out that their child was suffering from T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He underwent four weeks of chemotherapy but doctors said that chemo was not enough to save his life.
They were told that little Oscar would need a stem cell transplant as soon as possible or within three months to fight against the disease.
The parents and a primary school teamed up with DKMS, an international nonprofit organization, hoping to get as many registrants as possible to increase the odds that at least one would be a perfect match for the 5-year-old.
As the community started to spread the word about Oscar’s story and his need for a donor to survive, thousands of people registered online and in person as stem cell donors.
In March, around 1,800 people came on the first day and 3,000 more arrived on the second day. 1,000 people also registered online, making almost 6,000 stem cell donors in the system!
Lisa Nugent, the head of donor recruitment with DKMS, said to the New York Times: “It’s incredibly difficult to find someone who is a suitable match because there are 17,000 HLA characteristics that have to be looked at.”
Business manager of Pitmaston Primary School, Sue Bladen, saw people flocked and waited in line to help little Oscar.
“People queued around the block, in the pouring rain, and nobody moaned about it,” Bladen expressed. “The spirit we had here was absolutely incredible, the generosity of people.”
After hoping and praying, the family finally received the incredible news that three stem cell matches had been found.
Oscar’s family wrote on Facebook: “Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of you out there who have registered, supported and continued to spread the word for our beautiful boy and those in need of wonderous bone marrow cells.”
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