Are you Arya's Angel?
Donation protected
Arya lives in Cambridge and is just 11 years old. She was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in July 2020.
DKMS UK have teamed up with KickOff@3 to find a donor for Arya. Our main focus is to spread awareness, increase blood stem cell donor registration and raise some funds to help find a donor for Arya. We need to reach as broad a demographic as possible aimed at people between the age of 17-55, we need people to register with DKMS, if our plight is to succeed. Arya's family, tragically, are not a match. Our search is made even more challenging as Arya is of mixed heritage being half Indian and half Caucasian (Welsh). Arya’s best chance of a match is from someone of Indian or mixed Indian/Caucasian origin.
Aplastic Anaemia is a life threatening condition affecting the blood. The body stops producing new blood cells that are needed to carry oxygen, prevent infection and to stop bleeding. In other words Arya's bone marrow has failed.
Despite Arya’s life changing diagnosis and the constant stays in hospital, whilst having immunosuppressive treatment, she remains positive and is hopeful of a matching donor being found.
Brundha (Arya's Mum) said: “Prior to her diagnosis Arya was fit and healthy. She loved to play sport and is very athletic, she swam, ran (100m sprints), played netball, hockey and was always on the trampoline and her zest for life was infectious.”
Geraint (Arya's Dad) added “There is someone out there who is a match with Arya. By having more people from a diverse range of backgrounds on the register Arya and countless others may be able to find that all important match. They may be in the UK, USA, India or another country. We just need people to come forward and join the DKMS stem cell register. It is really straightforward to do and you could help save the life of someone like Arya."
How can you help?
From November 2nd to December 2nd 2020
Participate in our Run/Spinoff4Arya event, throughout November.
Get sponsored, walk, run, cycle, (pushchairs and wheelchairs welcome). Set your own distance target, you have a whole month to reach your goal. Encourage family, friends and colleagues to join in, make a donation or sponsor you. Don't forget to take photos and videos whilst on your challenge, post these on social media with the GoFundMe link to Arya's campaign https://www.gofundme.com/f/RunOff4Arya/ and tag us in #Kickoff@3 and #DKMS
Join in our 'Run/Spinoffat3, Grand Finale' at 10am Sunday 6th December 2020, from West Hampstead Thameslink, Iverson Road, West Hampstead to London Eye. For further details contact us via our website https://www.kickoffat3.co.uk/
Register with DKMS as a blood stem cell donor, check your eligibility and register here.
Ask everyone you know, to ask everyone they know to register with DKMS.
Spread the word through social media with everyone you know and ask them to share with everyone they know.
Make a donation, just a few pennies will make a huge difference.
We think you get the gist? The wider our reach, the more people that take part and register, the greater the probability of finding Arya's Angel.
As importantly, stay safe and follow the lockdown rules.
On behalf of Arya, her family and friends, thank you for your support.
Who are KickOffat3?
A 'not-for-profit' organisation set up in 2017 to engage with and support young people through the medium of Sport, Music & the Arts, and raises awareness and funds for a range of charities that promote health and well-being in young people. Since 2017, they have established firm long lasting relationships between young people their communities and their local police force as a youth diversion strategy. Kickoffat3 is the only organisation that works to provide support at a local level on a UK wide basis.
Kickoffat3 was set up by Michael Wallace and Ashley Levien. Michael Wallace is a serving Police Officer who works in Community and Youth Engagement and is passionate about supporting youth and community initiatives outside work too. Currently a School Governor for London Colney Primary School, he understands how important connection and relationships are with vulnerable young people, sports can provide stability they might not get elsewhere. Ashley works for TFL, is a football coach and personal trainer. Michael and Ashley are both SportSide Ambassadors.
Kickoffat3 in its short life thus far has been recognised for its efforts with numerous awards, nominations and accolades: - 2020 Howard League Community Award Nominees- Policing & Children’s Category; 2019 & 2018 -Football Black List Premier League Grassroots Award Winners; 2019 Middlesex FA Grassroots Project of the Year Award Winner; 2019 St Albans Chambers of Commence; Community Champion Nominees; 2018 National Black Police Association Community Champion Award Winners; 2017 -National Kids Count Award Winners.
The funds raised will go towards finding Arya's Angel and will enable Kickoffat3 to carry on creating and implementing charity events and fundraisers and provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people. Visit our website here to see what we've been up to even during lockdown.
Who are DKMS UK?
Their story began with one family fighting to save someone they loved. When Mechtild Harf was told that the only treatment for her leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, she had no matching family members. At the time, there were only 3,000 potential stem cell donors on the German registry to provide a transplant. Confronted by the knowledge that his wife faced difficult odds in finding a matching donor, her husband Peter decided to apply his prolific business skills to the question of how to give his wife and patients like her the best chance at survival. The answer seemed clear: more unrelated donors meant better chances for all patients in need.
Peter founded DKMS with his wife’s transplant physician, Gerhard Ehninger, on the 28th of May 1991 and in their first year of operations they managed to expand the registry from 3,000 donors to 68,000. Despite the Harf family’s best efforts, Mechtild ultimately did not survive. However, before she passed away she made Peter promise her that he would not stop fighting until every patient had a matching donor and a potential second chance at life. Since then Peter and his daughter Katharina Harf, the Vice Chairwoman of the DKMS Foundation Board, have kept that promise. Motivated by the fate of their wife and mother, by 1995 Katharina and Peter had helped build DKMS into the world’s largest stem cell donor register and ever since they have worked tirelessly to fulfil their mission – to provide as many blood cancer patients as possible with a second chance at life.
DKMS UK have teamed up with KickOff@3 to find a donor for Arya. Our main focus is to spread awareness, increase blood stem cell donor registration and raise some funds to help find a donor for Arya. We need to reach as broad a demographic as possible aimed at people between the age of 17-55, we need people to register with DKMS, if our plight is to succeed. Arya's family, tragically, are not a match. Our search is made even more challenging as Arya is of mixed heritage being half Indian and half Caucasian (Welsh). Arya’s best chance of a match is from someone of Indian or mixed Indian/Caucasian origin.
Aplastic Anaemia is a life threatening condition affecting the blood. The body stops producing new blood cells that are needed to carry oxygen, prevent infection and to stop bleeding. In other words Arya's bone marrow has failed.
Despite Arya’s life changing diagnosis and the constant stays in hospital, whilst having immunosuppressive treatment, she remains positive and is hopeful of a matching donor being found.
Brundha (Arya's Mum) said: “Prior to her diagnosis Arya was fit and healthy. She loved to play sport and is very athletic, she swam, ran (100m sprints), played netball, hockey and was always on the trampoline and her zest for life was infectious.”
Geraint (Arya's Dad) added “There is someone out there who is a match with Arya. By having more people from a diverse range of backgrounds on the register Arya and countless others may be able to find that all important match. They may be in the UK, USA, India or another country. We just need people to come forward and join the DKMS stem cell register. It is really straightforward to do and you could help save the life of someone like Arya."
How can you help?
From November 2nd to December 2nd 2020
Participate in our Run/Spinoff4Arya event, throughout November.
Get sponsored, walk, run, cycle, (pushchairs and wheelchairs welcome). Set your own distance target, you have a whole month to reach your goal. Encourage family, friends and colleagues to join in, make a donation or sponsor you. Don't forget to take photos and videos whilst on your challenge, post these on social media with the GoFundMe link to Arya's campaign https://www.gofundme.com/f/RunOff4Arya/ and tag us in #Kickoff@3 and #DKMS
Join in our 'Run/Spinoffat3, Grand Finale' at 10am Sunday 6th December 2020, from West Hampstead Thameslink, Iverson Road, West Hampstead to London Eye. For further details contact us via our website https://www.kickoffat3.co.uk/
Register with DKMS as a blood stem cell donor, check your eligibility and register here.
Ask everyone you know, to ask everyone they know to register with DKMS.
Spread the word through social media with everyone you know and ask them to share with everyone they know.
Make a donation, just a few pennies will make a huge difference.
We think you get the gist? The wider our reach, the more people that take part and register, the greater the probability of finding Arya's Angel.
As importantly, stay safe and follow the lockdown rules.
On behalf of Arya, her family and friends, thank you for your support.
Who are KickOffat3?
A 'not-for-profit' organisation set up in 2017 to engage with and support young people through the medium of Sport, Music & the Arts, and raises awareness and funds for a range of charities that promote health and well-being in young people. Since 2017, they have established firm long lasting relationships between young people their communities and their local police force as a youth diversion strategy. Kickoffat3 is the only organisation that works to provide support at a local level on a UK wide basis.
Kickoffat3 was set up by Michael Wallace and Ashley Levien. Michael Wallace is a serving Police Officer who works in Community and Youth Engagement and is passionate about supporting youth and community initiatives outside work too. Currently a School Governor for London Colney Primary School, he understands how important connection and relationships are with vulnerable young people, sports can provide stability they might not get elsewhere. Ashley works for TFL, is a football coach and personal trainer. Michael and Ashley are both SportSide Ambassadors.
Kickoffat3 in its short life thus far has been recognised for its efforts with numerous awards, nominations and accolades: - 2020 Howard League Community Award Nominees- Policing & Children’s Category; 2019 & 2018 -Football Black List Premier League Grassroots Award Winners; 2019 Middlesex FA Grassroots Project of the Year Award Winner; 2019 St Albans Chambers of Commence; Community Champion Nominees; 2018 National Black Police Association Community Champion Award Winners; 2017 -National Kids Count Award Winners.
The funds raised will go towards finding Arya's Angel and will enable Kickoffat3 to carry on creating and implementing charity events and fundraisers and provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people. Visit our website here to see what we've been up to even during lockdown.
Who are DKMS UK?
Their story began with one family fighting to save someone they loved. When Mechtild Harf was told that the only treatment for her leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, she had no matching family members. At the time, there were only 3,000 potential stem cell donors on the German registry to provide a transplant. Confronted by the knowledge that his wife faced difficult odds in finding a matching donor, her husband Peter decided to apply his prolific business skills to the question of how to give his wife and patients like her the best chance at survival. The answer seemed clear: more unrelated donors meant better chances for all patients in need.
Peter founded DKMS with his wife’s transplant physician, Gerhard Ehninger, on the 28th of May 1991 and in their first year of operations they managed to expand the registry from 3,000 donors to 68,000. Despite the Harf family’s best efforts, Mechtild ultimately did not survive. However, before she passed away she made Peter promise her that he would not stop fighting until every patient had a matching donor and a potential second chance at life. Since then Peter and his daughter Katharina Harf, the Vice Chairwoman of the DKMS Foundation Board, have kept that promise. Motivated by the fate of their wife and mother, by 1995 Katharina and Peter had helped build DKMS into the world’s largest stem cell donor register and ever since they have worked tirelessly to fulfil their mission – to provide as many blood cancer patients as possible with a second chance at life.
Organizer and beneficiary
KickOff@3 and DKMS Charity
Organizer
Michael Wallace
Beneficiary
