Maggie has been a wonderful part of our family since 2014 when she met Gavin at a beauty industry awards function where she was nominated for student of the year. To our delight, Maggie and Gavin got married in 2017. They now live and work in West Yorkshire.
In February 2020, as the UK was becoming aware of COVID19, Maggie was diagnosed with leukaemia aged 37. During the first lockdown and throughout the summer of 2020, Maggie bravely underwent four rounds of intensive chemotherapy which put her cancer into remission for a short time; but then in May 2021 Maggie received the devastating news that her leukaemia had returned.
Maggie’s best hope to cure her leukaemia is now a lifesaving bone marrow transplant and miraculously, testing has revealed that Maggie’s brother Jason is a full match. We are filled with hope at this fantastic news, however due to the pandemic, getting Jason to the UK and back home again is not straightforward.
Jason lives in Hong Kong and works away from home in China, as a taxi driver, supporting his wife and 7-month-old son. Due to COVID travel restrictions in Hong Kong, Jason has so far been unable to travel to the UK to donate his bone marrow to Maggie. However, successful vaccination programmes in Hong Kong recently led to the lifting of some restrictions for people who are double vaccinated, thankfully this now means that Jason can travel to the UK to help Maggie.
Why are we fundraising?
Searches of UK bone marrow registers found a potential donor but tests have shown they were not compatible. Jason is her best hope, and it is vital for her treatment that we get him here ready for her operation in early October.
The UK is currently on the Hong Kong SAR government’s list of “high risk places” for coronavirus. This means that when Jason returns home, he is required to pay for three weeks in a designated quarantine hotel and several COVID tests. He will then have to isolate for a further week at home.
Jason will also be unable to work for a minimum of seven weeks (three weeks in the UK and four weeks quarantine) and his young family will endure great hardship without his income. We estimate the total cost for the quarantine hotel, COVID tests and his family overheads is in the region of £8000 for these seven weeks.
The impact of the pandemic and COVID restrictions have generated these unusual additional expenses. We want to give Maggie every possible chance to face and win the upcoming battle against her cancer. With your generous donations we can at least remove this hurdle.
Thank you for your donation and for reading Maggie’s story.