Sixteen-year old Laith Abu Areesh suffers from Fanconi\u2019s Anemia, a condition that affects the bone marrow\u2019s ability to make healthy blood cells. The condition arises from a genetic defect in Laith\u2019s DNA and he has been ill since it was diagnosed in early childhood. Doctors said his best chance of recovery was a bone marrow transplant but extensive searches over the years had failed to find a donor match.<\/p>\n
New hope for Laith arrived in October 2010 with the birth of his baby sister. Her cord blood would contain a rich supply of the same stem cells which are present in bone marrow and which might be a match for her sick brother.<\/p>\n
The family turned to Nottingham-based Future Health Biobank, the UK\u2019s largest and Europe\u2019s first accredited cord blood stem cell bank, who made arrangements to collect and store the sample. Tests revealed that his sister\u2019s sample was not just a close match but a perfect match for Laith and contained sufficient stem cells to be used. The sample would therefore be ready and waiting for a time when Laith\u2019s condition would be stable enough for his doctors to consider a transplant.<\/p>\n
That time has now arrived and the sample was duly released from storage by Future Health at the end of April. The transplant took place at the King Hussein Cancer Centre in Jordan on Sunday 20 May and all went well but it will be some weeks before doctors know if it has been a complete success. The transplant was performed by Dr Ayad Hussein, who has been in charge of Laith\u2019s care for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to have released a sample for treatment as we celebrate our tenth anniversary,\u201d said Roger Dainty MBE, Future Health\u2019s UK managing director. \u201cRight from the start we have termed ourselves a family facility. The samples we hold could be a lifeline not only for the child they belong to but for their siblings \u2013 as in this case, but also parents or even grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sixteen-year old Laith Abu Areesh suffers from Fanconi\u2019s Anemia, a condition that affects the bone marrow\u2019s ability to make healthy blood cells. The condition arises from a genetic defect in Laith\u2019s DNA and he has been ill since it was diagnosed in early childhood. Doctors said his best chance of recovery was a bone marrow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n