BRAVE AVA’S DONOR DRIVE
Marrow transplant girl is the face of new campaign
BRAVE Ava Stark is to become the face of a charity campaign to recruit life-saving bone marrow donors.
The four-year-old has just celebrated the 100-day anniversary of her own marrow transplant after an agonising wait for a donor.
The heartbreaking story of how a donor pulled out at the last minute touched the hearts of thousands.
The Record backed Ava’s mum Marie’s worldwide appeal and more than 83,000 people registered to help her.
Now she will feature on promotional leaflets and posters for Anthony Nolan, the charity who campaign to get more people to sign up for the register.
The promotional posters are made in partnership with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, who regularly hold recruitment events for donors.
Marie, 34, from Lochgelly, Fife, said: “We have now got confirmation that Princess Ava will be the face of Anthony Nolan posters and promotional leaflets. To say this is amazing is not enough.
“When we were faced with having two donors pulling out, we realised there wasn’t enough awareness regarding donation of stem cells, blood or platelets.
“Then we were contacted by the local fire department who regularly run and hold drives to get more people to register and sign up.
“Ava popped along to meet the team and they discussed many things. It was then decided that they would use Ava and her story.
“The work that the fire service do – not only dealing with their everyday jobs but also to get people to come forward and all the extra work that goes into arranging these events – my hat goes off to them.”
Ava was left relying on blood and platelet tranfusions after she was diagnosed with inherited bone marrow failure early last year.
After our appeal, two new donors were found.