Friends in Hong Kong join search for bone marrow donor to help UK boy with serious blood condition

Hong Kong-born Alfie Pinckney, eight, is hoping that somewhere in the world, there is a stranger who might save his life. Diagnosed three years ago with aplastic anaemia, a condition that occurs when the body stops producing enough new blood cells, he now needs a platelet transfusion every week to stay alive. His parents, former property investment manager Charles Pinckney, 44, who is British, and Hongkonger Lily, 45, have launched a global appeal for a bone marrow donor who might give the boy a chance to live normally. The couple also have twin girls, aged five. Friends in Hong Kong, where the family lived for 10 years, are also helping spread the word about Alfie’s condition in the hope of finding a donor who will be a suitable match. “Someone out there is compatible, and I’m trying to find them,” Pinckney told the Post from Exeter, where the family lives now. Alfie is like many other boys and loves Lego, puzzles and the Manchester City football team, but his illness makes his life challenging. When one of his sisters brought a cough back from school, he had a spiking fever and spent nine days in hospital. “Just a simple cough or cold, that is how it affects him,” Pinckney said. Professor Li Chi-kong from the department of paediatrics at Chinese University said aplastic anaemia patients risked severe infection or life-threatening bleeding, with complications carrying the possibility of death. “It’s difficult to predict when these unfortunate events may happen. The more serious the aplastic anaemia, the higher chance of these events,” he said. Although Alfie is of English-Chinese descent, Li said it was still possible to identify a suitable donor from either Hong Kong’s bone marrow registry or the international marrow transplant database. There are nine blood donor centres in the city, where those willing to be bone marrow donors can register and provide a blood sample. If a potential match is identified, the donor’s blood is sent to the transplant centre for confirmation testing, with the help of the local bone marrow registry. As of last year, more than 149,000 people in Hong Kong had registered as bone marrow donors, and 653 of them had donated to patients, according to Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service data. More than 1,000 people in Hong Kong are diagnosed with leukaemia and other serious blood diseases every year, and for many, a bone marrow transplant is their only hope for a cure, according to the service. When a patient needs a transplant, the service will initiate a search among registered donors. If a potential donor is found, it will then liaise with the donor and patient’s hospital. The most important factor is a complete match of both the donor’s and recipient’s tissue types. The service began looking for a donor for Alfie last year, but so far, no one has been found. Pinckney said he and his wife scored only “five out of 10” as suitable donors and were hoping to find a “10 out of 10” match to save their son’s life. Li said that if no suitable donor was found, a transplant could be done using marrow from either parent. Recent data suggested a 5/10 match for a parent should have a “similar outcome” as a 10/10 match with an unrelated donor, but Li said: “There could be a 10 to 20 per cent less chance of success.” The family used to live on Ma Wan island, between Lantau and Tsing Yi, and their former community has stepped up to help. Simon and Anna Rayton, who own the Little Mario’s Pizzeria on the island, have begun distributing a leaflet with a QR code telling people who want to help Alfie where to get tested to see whether they are a match. The couple, who have known the Pinckneys for years, went to the Tsuen Wan Donor Centre to register with the international marrow transplant database and it took about 10 minutes. “Hearing that Alfie is getting worse and worse is just heartbreaking,” said Anna Rayton, 41, who has lived in Hong Kong for 16 years. “We are trying to encourage every single person who can to register as a donor, because we just need one person to save his life.”

Friends in Hong Kong join search for bone marrow donor to help UK boy with serious blood condition

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Eight-year-old born in Hong Kong needs bone marrow transplant for a chance to live normally Patients with aplastic anaemia face risk of severe bleeding, death from complications, expert says

Eight-year-old born in Hong Kong needs bone marrow transplant for a chance to live normally

Patients with aplastic anaemia face risk of severe bleeding, death from complications, expert says