“Give a family like ours reason to hope.”
- Peckham couple lead urgent campaign to sign up more potential stem cell donors after Theo’s devastating leukaemia diagnosis
Theo Kotz and his partner Rebekah were a young couple living life to the full in Peckham, SE London when blood cancer stopped them in their tracks.
Theo, 33, has been diagnosed with leukaemia – and urgently needs a stem cell transplant. But there is no compatible match for him on the stem cell donor register, which very few people currently know about.
With time running out and Theo being cared for in hospital, he and Rebekah have teamed up with blood cancer charity DKMS to help save patients like Theo. She has helped launch an urgent online appeal, encouraging more people to undertake the quick and easy process of signing up as potential stem cell donors.
“We are on a mission to get Theo matched!” explains Rebekah. “We know he must have matches out there, we just need to find them. We want to sign up as many people as is humanly possible to become registered stem cell donors — not only for Theo’s sake, but for every person affected by blood cancer. Every single registration might just save someone’s life and give a family like ours a reason to hope.”
Theo, a film-maker and writer, is notorious for always being the first one on the dance floor and has a huge zest for life that includes loving Guinness, the woods, writing, the sea, his mum’s dogs, raving, running, dance music, folklore, documentaries, telling funny stories and, more than anything, his friends, family and Rebekah. But he was admitted to hospital after three months of increasing fatigue and shortness of breath. He had also developed an unusual large lump on his neck, and the haematology team very quickly diagnosed acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer.
“It’s so easy to sign up as a stem cell donor and the donation process itself can be just like giving blood it’s a no-brainer,” continues Rebekah. “A selfless act that takes little effort and could give someone their life back.”
Registering as a stem cell donor is indeed a quick and easy process involving a simple mouth swab, offering hope to blood cancer patients who are still urgently in need of a compatible stem cell match. If you are aged 17-55 and in general good health, you’re eligible to join the register with DKMS.
DKMS spokesperson Deborah Hyde says: “If you are found to be a match for someone needing a transplant, then in nine out of ten cases, donating your stem cells is a simple process similar to giving blood. Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer, so you could be giving someone like Theo a second chance at life.”
- You can request a swab kit online at dkms.org.uk/Theo
- If you’re not eligible to join the stem cell register, there are lots of other ways to support people with blood cancers and disorders – find out more at: Donation explained
Things you didn’t know about blood cancer:
1. Blood cancers are the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK
2. Every year, nearly 13,000 people die from blood cancer in the UK
3. At any one time there are around 2,000 people in the UK in need of a stem cell transplant.