Brass band aid... musicians bid to save trombonist battling cancer
MUSICIANS across the country are rallying together to help a young trombonist fighting cancer.
Stephen Sykes, 26, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year and is in desperate need of a stem cell donor.
Now brass band members around Britain are being swab-tested to see if they are a match, having joined a Facebook campaign to save him.
Mr Sykes, who has shared the stage with rock star Sting and performed in front of Prince Charles, was diagnosed last February and has since undergone five rounds of chemotherapy – but it has not worked so far.
Transplant
The musician and conductor from Shepton Mallet, Somerset, said: “Since the second lot of treatment the cancer has gone into my bone marrow. Doctors have taken my own stem cells. They cannot find an existing match for me at the minute.”
Even if a donor is found, medics need to bring his condition under control before considering him for a transplant. He started his latest treatment two weeks ago and his family hopes it will help to bring his condition under control to ready him for a transplant.
Britain’s brass band community is now pitching in by trying to have as many people as possible tested.
Mr Sykes said he was “humbled” by the public response in his search to find a suitable donor. He added: “It’s brilliant. The whole brass band movement has gone all out. It’s not what I was expecting at all.
“I know upwards of 100 people who have got in touch in the last couple of days over Facebook – who knows how many people have gone on to do it that I haven’t met.
“I was never expecting it to be anything more than a few people.”
His mother Jo, 46, said: “We are hoping to have swab test stations at events around the country.
“We are even trying to get one of the stem cell registration companies on board.”
Anna Minear, of St Austell Town Band, in Cornwall, said her team was getting involved with the campaign.
She said: “The brass band community really look out for each other.”