Please help Robert fight leukaemia

8:24am Thursday 1st May 2008

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IT is almost six years since little Shannon Bradshaw lost her battle with leukaemia and now her family is urging Warrington people to once again show compassion to help save a teenager's life.

Sixteen-year-old Robert Murphy has been diagnosed with adult myeloid leukaemia, a rare form of cancer, and he may need a bone marrow transplant.

The clinic is on Wednesday, May 28, from 4pm to 8pm at the Tetley Walker Social Club, Long Lane, Orford

How you can help

A clinic later this month will test volunteers for potential life-saving donors.

"We have always said that if we had done that final clinic for Shannon four weeks earlier she would still be here," said Shannon's mum Patti.

A perfect match was found after thousands of people were tested, but by then Shannon, of Reaper Close, Great Sankey, was too ill to have the operation that would have saved her life.

She died in July 2002, aged seven, of aplastic anaemia, a rare form of leukaemia.

Robert, of Statham Avenue, Orford, has just finished his second course of chemotherapy and as the Warrington Guardian went to press, was waiting to see if it had been effective.

The treatment has left him feeling drained. "The drugs just knock me out. I'm asleep most of the time," said Robert.

"That's the worst thing about it because I'm normally an active, sporty person. My brain's still active and I feel like I can do it and I want to do it but I'm just so weak.

"I didn't want to wake up in a bed full of hair so I asked my dad to shave my head," he said.

Robert may need a bone marrow transplant so his family, with the help of the Shannon Bradshaw Trust, is organising a clinic to hunt for potential donors.

They want to find a match for Robert in advance so that, if he does need a transplant he won't have to wait, as Shannon did.

Robert was diagnosed with AML on March 12 and has since had two courses of chemotherapy. Originally doctors thought he had tonsillitis and it was three weeks before the leukaemia was found.

He is being fed through a tube at night to make sure he gets enough nutrients as the chemotherapy can make him feel sick and unable to eat.

He is susceptible to infection, so he needs to stay away from anyone who is unwell.

"I can't catch anything, though, in our house, the way she Dettols it...!" he joked, speaking about his dad's girlfriend, Christine Pearson.

The former William Beamont High School pupil is a qualified referee for under 16s football teams and works with the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace as a sports leader.

He is taking a construction course at Warrington Collegiate and is determined to sit his exams next Tuesday so he can become a joiner.

His dad, John, works for Golden Gates Housing and his colleagues helped raise money to buy Robert a laptop to keep in touch with his friends while he is in Alder Hey Hospital.

"The psychological side of it is as important as the physical side," said John.

The clinic will be run by the Anthony Nolan Trust and staffed by nurses from Warrington Hospital.

All you have to do is give a small blood sample which will be compared with the list of people waiting for transplants.

To register as a bone marrow donor, you must be aged between 18 and 40, be in good health, weigh more than eight stone and be willing to donate to any patient you match.

* The clinic is on Wednesday, May 28, between 4pm and 8pm at the Tetley Walker Social Club, Long Lane, Orford.