Mother’s plea to find stem cell donor for nine-year-old daughter

A woman is urgently seeking a stem cell donor for her nine-year-old daughter, who has been diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal blood disorder.

Amilah Hussain, from Horsham, West Sussex, was first taken to her GP to look into repeated bruising on her shins earlier this year.

Blood tests showed low platelet counts and in October Amilah was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Aplastic anaemia is a rare condition that occurs when bone marrow cannot make enough new blood cells for someone’s body to work normally, making it harder to fight infection, stop bleeding or carry oxygen.

Doctors have told Amilah’s mother, Mobeen Hussain, a stem cell transplant is her daughter’s only hope of a cure – but there is currently no match on the stem cell register.

Amilah’s Pakistani heritage means she is more likely to have a unique tissue type, and less likely to find a donor on UK registers compared to those from white, northern European backgrounds.

In a bid to find a suitable donor, Mrs Hussain, 42, has launched the Amilah Means Hope campaign with the Anthony Nolan stem cell charity, to encourage people between 16 and 30 – particularly those from minority ethnic backgrounds – to sign the stem cell register.

Mrs Hussain said: “When we looked into it, it seemed there’s a lack of donors suitable for patients from ethnic minority communities. The general awareness is just not there.

“Knowing it will be difficult for Amilah to find a donor makes me want to do something.”

“Until this happened, I didn’t realise that this [stem cell donation] is something people can do,” she continued. “It’s why I’m doing this.

“Stem cell donation is giving a gift of life; it’s such a precious gift to give anyone.”

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Only 100 to 150 people in the UK are diagnosed with aplastic anaemia every year, according to Anthony Nolan.

A successful transplant will introduce healthy stem cells into Amilah’s bloodstream to help her body grow and produce new blood cells.

Finding a donor will give Amilah – whose name means “hope” in Arabic – “a second chance at life”, added Anthony Nolan’s head of policy and public affairs Yasmin Sheikh.