Drive to recruit new black donors

Beverley De-Gale set up the trust in 1996

A leukaemia trust is leading a drive to recruit more bone marrow donors from the African Caribbean community.

Beverley De-Gale's son Daniel was just six years old when he was diagnosed with leukaemia.

When he needed a bone marrow transplant nine years ago there were fewer than 600 black people on the UK donor register. It now stands at 15,500.

The African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust is holding a recruitment drive in Luton this weekend to find more donors.

Daniel was eight when his family was told that to live he would need a transplant.

The shortage prompted her with her partner Orin Lewis to establish the trust in 1996.

A matching donor was found for Daniel when he was 12

Daniel, who is now 17, only had a one in 250,000 chance to find a suitable donor because so few black people had volunteered as donors.

It took four agonising years of treatment and relapses to find a suitable donor.

In the meantime the number of potential black donors has risen to about 15,500, but more are still needed.

"Matches are coming through for black sufferers, not just in this country but all around the world," Mrs De-Gale said.

She hopes a session on Saturday will help to find a donor to help Donna Benjamin, 37.

The mother of one from Luton has a cancer in the bone marrow and has been told a transplant offers her only chance of survival.

The session will begin at 1000 BST and end at 1800 BST at Luton's Hat Factory in Bute Street.