The girls proving there’s no greater power than a daughter’s love
WHEN Emma, Sophie and Georgie Ireland were little, they fought like crazy. Not over toys or clothes — but over who’d get the first bear hug when Dad walked through the door after work.
‘We loved dancing on his feet,’ laughs Sophie. ‘So we’d rush to be the one to get to him first. Mum would put on the stereo and Dad would dance around the room with one of us on each foot.’
The squabbling is long since over. But watching Emma, 28, Sophie 26, and Georgie, 23, fussing over their dad, Rob, at the family home in Wimbledon, South-West London, their love for him is still clear to see.
Emma — the empathetic sister — is holding Rob’s hand. Sophie — the practical one — wants to check he’s not tired and Georgie, the fun-loving sister, is telling a family story which has everyone in fits of giggles.
In the background mum Mel, 56, raises an indulgent eyebrow.
Daughters rarely need to prove how much they love their dads, but that’s exactly what the Ireland girls are now doing — and the reason couldn’t be more poignant.
For Rob — a handsome, dignified 57-year-old with a glittering business career — has Hodgkin Lymphoma and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant (also know as a stem cell transplant) in the next few months. And the girls are moving heaven and earth to save his life — while also changing the fortunes of hundreds of other cancer sufferers.
Chemotherapy is keeping Rob’s cancer, which develops in the lymphatic system, at bay. But without a transplant, he has only a five per cent chance of survival. TOLD there was no match in the UK, the three girls decided to somehow find one. Last month, they launched an internet campaign to encourage people to register as donors — and are already credited with gaining thousands of recruits.
‘When you love someone so much it hurts, you will do anything to help,’ says Emma, an account manager with a branding agency. Sophie, an MBA student at Imperial College London, and Georgie, who’s on a gap year, both nod vigorously.
‘I couldn’t be more proud of them,’ says Rob, chief customer officer for Coca-Cola in Europe. ‘I’ve always tried to teach them to be positive and proactive. But I can honestly say that I never realised they listened to a word I said. They’ve proved me wrong.’
It all started last June. Super-fit Rob had completed a triathlon (his 11th) when he started feeling tired. After he began suffering night sweats he saw his GP. Two weeks later, a biopsy at St George’s Hospital, in Tooting, South-West London, confirmed he had lymphoma.
Although Mel and Rob were shocked, their major concern was to limit the impact of the news on their beloved girls.
Emma says: ‘Dad opened a bottle of champagne over dinner saying that we all had something to celebrate. I had just been promoted. Sophie had just got on her MBA course and Georgie had just been awarded a first- class degree from Bristol University.
‘Then, quietly, he said he had news of his own. We were all in shock when he told us. But his big message was this was a blip and that we had to stay positive.’
Typically upbeat, Sophie emailed her sisters the next morning: ‘Hey Cancer — you are messing with the wrong family.’
Rob endured six gruelling cycles of chemotherapy — during which he lost his hair — followed by six weeks of radiotherapy. But n March, the night sweats returned. Tests showed the cancer was back — and was more aggressive.
Doctors at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital told Rob that his only hope was a stem cell transplant. His brother, Nicholas, and sister, Caroline, were tested, but neither proved a suitable match.
Rob was forced to join the register to find a donor. Worse news followed. His tissue type is so rare it doesn’t match with anyone on the UK register.
The girls, in desperation, decided to widen the hunt via the Anthony Nolan Trust. The world’s first bone marrow donor register was set up in 1974 by Shirley Nolan.
When her three-year-old son, Anthony, was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and needed a bone marrow transplant, Shirley was horrified to find there was no way of finding potential donors. So she launched an appeal — and the Trust was born.
Sadly, it was too late to help Anthony who died in 1979, just before his eighth birthday. But the charity has since saved countless lives. Last year, it helped find donors for 1,200 people in the UK.
‘To our shame we had never heard of the Anthony Nolan Trust,’ says Emma. ‘ When we researched, we discovered that the Trust desperately needs young male donors.
‘They make up half of donations yet only 15 per cent of the register. How were we going to get to them?’ Then the sisters had their lightbulb moment: we’ll create a Facebook page. Without telling Mel or Rob, Georgie got out her laptop and started putting together a page: Give Our Dad A Bone ( Marrow Transplant), on which she asked people between 16 and 55 to register online. That was on May 12. Within hours, texts, emails and phone calls were flooding in. The sisters’ Facebook page now has more than 27,000 likes and 11,300 members.
‘That first day alone I got so many phone calls I had to recharge my mobile phone three times,’ says Sophie.
Georgie chips in: ‘The biggest surprise was waking up the next morning and finding dozens of messages from strangers all saying Dad’s story had inspired them.
‘When you register, you get a saliva kit. You simply spit in a cup and send it back. Donating is simple, too. It’s time to debunk the myth that it’s painful and nasty.’
Since the girls’ campaign began, more than 7,200 people have registered with the Trust — an increase of 174 per cent on the same period last year. More than 2,000 clicked through from the sisters’ Facebook page.
‘Rob’s inspiring family have truly done him proud,’ says Trust executive Ann O’Leary.
‘We’ve seen a huge spike in online donor applications and any one of these selfless potential donors could save the life of someone facing blood cancer.’ ALL THREE sisters credit their resolute optimism to Rob. ‘Dad’s biggest gift to us is his upbeat attitude to life,’ says Georgie. ‘Nothing — even cancer — gets him down. When we were little and fell off our bikes, Dad would hug us and say: “Look forward — not back. Get right back on.”
‘He’s always been our biggest champion. When the midwife asked if Dad was disappointed to have a third daughter, he says he almost hit the roof.
‘Now it’s our turn to look out for him. With a little bit of positivity and initiative, we are all a bit closer to fighting this vile disease that affects so many people’s lives.’
Rob nods. ‘Whatever happens to me, my girls will have helped make a difference to so many people and that makes me prouder than you can imagine.’
register at anthonynolan.org if you are aged 16-30 or at deletebloodcancer.org.uk if you are under 55.