Stars come out in force for bone marrow donor
DOZENS OF celebrities, including pop star Britney Spears, have backed a campaign to help a Jewish family find a bone marrow donor for their mother after her leukaemia returned.
Three years ago, British Jews came together to save the life of Kenton grandmother Sharon Berger.
With a diagnosis of advanced leukaemia, Mrs Berger’s only hope was a stemcell transplant. Thousands of people signed up as potential donors through the family’s #Spit4Mum campaign and eventually a match was found.
Since the transplant, Mrs Berger has enjoyed life. But, two weeks ago, the family were dealt a devastating blow as a routine blood-test revealed the illness had returned.
Sharon Osbourne, Gillian Anderson, Matt Lucas, boy band Blue, Cindy Crawford, Bear Grylls, Mayim Bialik, Bar Refaeli and One D i r e c - tion’s Liam P a y n e a r e among the c e l e bri t i e s who have all shared the #Spit4Mum campaign online. Britney Spears tweeted details of the campaign to her 46.7 million followers in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Speaking about the support for her 65-year-old mother, Mrs Berger’s daughter Caroline said: “We’ve been incredibly moved by the global support from celebrities on social media.
“NowIhopewecanturnthosetweets into sign-ups to help save my mum’s life. We are incredibly grateful that people in the public eye are putting their social media presence behind our #Spit4Mum campaign and using their celebrity status for the greater good.” Caroline’s brother, Jonni, added: “There has been a massive increase in the number of people registering here and in the US. It is certainly in the thousands. “My mum has been blow away a n d i s n o w Britney Spears and Sharon Osbourne are supporting the campaign a Directioner, even if she wasn’t one before. Seeing everyone get behind her really lifts her spirits from a very closed off hospital room.”
Doctors have told the family that Mrs Berger has just six weeks before she needs a second transplant.
Jonni explained: “It means that her body has not responded to the anonymous matching donor who seemed to have saved her life, and she now needs another transplant.”
He and his sister spearheaded the 2013 #Spit4Mum campaign, which led to a 1,100 per cent increase in the number of British Jews registering as donors.
Blood-cancer charity Anthony Nolan is now searching the world’s combined stem-cell registries for someone whose tissue type matches Mrs Berger’s.
Becauseof herJewishheritage,herbest match is likely to be an Ashkenazi Jew. But the family are encouraging everyone who is eligible to join the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow register.
Ann O’Leary, head of register development at Anthony Nolan, said: “The amount of support for #Spit4Mum so far has been extremely heartening. She added that the charity was “particularly looking for people from Jewish and other ethnic minority backgrounds to join, as they are currently underrepresented on the donor register.”