We told Finley he could save his brother’s life...he said ‘Brilliant’

TRANSPLANT DONATION OF BRAVE 5-YEAR-OLD TO DONATE TO FINLEY’S FUND

A BOY of five has stepped forward as a donor to save his brother from leukaemia.

Finley Cripps will give his bone marrow to three-year-old Ollie, who was diagnosed with the blood cancer last June.

Ollie’s acute myeloid leukaemia is difficult to treat and after rounds of chemotherapy he suffered a relapse.

Mum Fiona said: “It was very traumatic when he first became ill. Ollie kept saying, ‘It hurts here’.

“The doctors said, ‘We are sending you for a blood test’. Then they said, ‘Can you come in’?”

When they got the dreaded results, Fiona, 26, and husband Lee, 27, had Finley and his one-year-old twin sisters Ellie and Evie tested to see if they were bone marrow matches.

Fiona added: “Finley is very intelligent. He knew what was going on.

“We said, ‘You have to have a blood test to see if you can help Ollie’. He said, ‘That is fine’. When we said you can save his life he said, ‘Brilliant’.

“And when we told him he could get a week off school he was even more excited!”

At first the family feared none of the children would be suitable for little Ollie. Fiona, of Sittingbourne, Kent, said: “The odds were one in four. It was a hard couple of weeks.

“But it came back all four matched. We cried. We were in shock.

We could not believe it.

“We had prepared ourselves for none of them to be a match.”

Finley was picked as he is the same sex as Ollie and is the eldest child.

Ollie’s been at London’s

Royal Marsden

Hospital since

November. His transplant is due to take place next month.

The procedure will take several weeks and

Finley has offered to shave off his hair in a show of solidarity with his little brother.

Fiona said: “We told

Finley, ‘Ollie is probably going to lose his hair’.

“He said, ‘Can you shave mine off too to be the same?’

“We said, ‘If you can raise money for the hospital you can shave your hair off’. He said, ‘I want to buy toys for the play room’.”

Fiona and Lee told Finley if he raised £500 they would grant his wish.

So far, Finley’s Go Fund Me campaign has raised almost

£800 for the cancer centre.

The money will go on toys for poorly kids and a coffee machine for the nurses.

Fiona said: “We are very proud of both of them. And the staff at the hospital are amazing.” DEVOTED: Finley and his little brother Ollie. Above, with mum Fiona and dad Lee. Bottom, together in hospital

gofundme.com/ help-finley-to-help-his-brother

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