Help Little Luca” combat JMML Leukaemia

Meet little Luca, our warrior, who turned 16 months yesterday!

Luca was recently diagnosed with JMML (Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukaemia), an extremely rare type of blood cancer, that affects only 1 in a million children per year and represents around just 2% to 3% of all childhood Leukaemia’s. There is no reason as to why this happens or why it affects more boys than girls.

To say the news has devastated and shocked everyone who knows him, is a massive understatement. Especially his parents, Marco & India, who have been living in Manchester Children’s Hospital with him ever since. They have literally had to drop everything to start on a long journey of life-saving treatment. This is something that has come without warning and something that is going to take time, realistically 8 to 12 months of continuous treatment and then recovery. Something no one could have ever anticipated or prepared for.

Although Luca displayed a lot of the symptoms, none of the doctors he saw put them together or thought to send him for a blood test. Instead, he was given numerous different antibiotics and sent home. Up until the point of diagnosis, his parents believed that the tests being done were going to uncover a food intolerance. Instead, their beautiful baby boy, who has continued to smile throughout, will require a bone marrow transplant, as well as chemo, to fight this horrific illness!

The enormity of what a diagnosis like this means, is something we were all relatively naïve to until last week and something no family should have to face!

So, I’m Liv, Luca’s proud auntie and I’m working in collaboration with Marco’s best friend Danny, to raise awareness about this dreadful illness, which requires a huge amount of resilience and knowledge.

It is with humility and gratitude, that we ask you to please consider the 3 ways we believe you might be able to help:

1. No matter how small it may seem, we want to raise money to help contribute towards Marco and India’s living costs over the next 12 months. Although Marco is already considering how he can manage his work load, it’s going to be a struggle with just one wage and if we can ease the pressure for them to help towards their mortgage, cost of living, bills and pet care while they focus on getting their little man through his treatment, it will help them enormously.

2. Please consider your eligibility for becoming a blood or stem cell donor. Luca has already had to endure numerous blood transfusions this week, which we are extremely thankful for but, chemo won’t be enough for Luca, he will need a Bone Marrow Transplant too. We urge you to consider becoming a donor in your respective countries.

If you’re in the UK, here are the links:

https://www.blood.co.uk/who-can-give-blood/

https://www.bbmr.co.uk

3. It is very comforting to hear stories from other people who have successfully navigated similar circumstances, so even if you can share some words of wisdom or advice, it would make us feel less alone as a family. How to mentally prepare for the impact of watching a baby go through the whole process, including a bone marrow transplant and chemo. And to help raise awarenss for others out there feeling as lost as we are.

Some of the things we would like to share so far that we are eternally appreciative for:

o Ronald McDonald House Charities is one of the most amazing supports we have received so far. We never realised the huge impact that “rounding up” at McDonalds actually equated to. But we now know that it is an amazing gift, which provides accommodation to families while their children are in hospital. If Marco had to commute between Lancaster and Manchester every day, it would have a huge knock-on effect emotionally, physically and financially. But thanks to everyone who contributes, he is able to stay in close proximity, enabling him to be with Luca and India at all times.

o The NHS and the care received from the doctors and nurses so far, who have acted so quickly and in such a compassionate way, is invaluable. We can’t thank them enough.

We are only a week into this journey and have gone through so much already. Our priority is getting Luca better and back home, so he can live and play, like any other healthy toddler. He is already going to miss holidays, days outs and events that were already booked.

We will be arranging different fundraising events over the coming months but, we will provide updates and share pictures as we go along.

#LittleLuca