My daddy donated his bone marrow and saved my life...
HELP wasn’t far away when fiveyear-old Phoebe Doneghan fell desperately ill with a rare condition and needed a transplant.
Against the odds, her father Tom proved a perfect match and donated bone marrow to save his daughter’s life.
Brave Phoebe has now made a recovery and is back home with her parents in South Shields.
Lauren Doneghan, 35, who lives with Tom, 33, and their younger daughter Harriet, two, said: “We feel so lucky Tom was able to step in and save Phoebe.
“He was a perfect match and doctors told us it was really rare for him to be that, so for a cure for Phoebe to be so close to home was just remarkable.
“She has come on in leaps and bounds since the transplant.”
Phoebe was diagnosed with the rare condition fanconi anaemia in March this year after suffering from bone marrow failure.
Mrs Doneghan said: “We had to take her to hospital three months before because she was unwell and doctors thought she had a chest infection and parvo virus.
“They took blood tests and over the next few weeks started looking at it more closely and eventually realised she was suffering from bone marrow failure. They started tests on her to see what was causing it and eventually she was diagnosed with fanconi anaemia which we had never even heard of. It was such a shock.
“We were told short stature could be a sign of it, and she is only petite. But I’m only just over five foot, so there was nothing that had ever alerted us to the fact there was anything seriously wrong with her.
“It was devastating to be told she had a life-threatening condition.” Doctors told the couple their daughter was already in bone marrow failure, a typical symptom of the condition, and if it was left untreated it may develop into leukaemia, which could prove fatal. They faced a race against time for her to have a life-saving bone marrow transplant. All her family were tested and were surprised to discover Tom proved to be a 100 per cent perfect match for his daughter.
Mrs Doneghan said: “The condition is so rare and we are part of a support group where other children who have this condition are desperate to get transplants and there are no matches for them. So we feel so lucky Tom was able to save her.”
The transplant took place in March. After the transplant Phoebe had to remain in isolation in hospital.
Mrs Doneghan said: “It was awful to have her in isolation. She was away from her sister and they really missed each other.” After Phoebe was allowed home she developed several infections and had to return to hospital for three weeks.
Mrs Doneghan said: “It was very emotional when she was finally allowed home. Tom and Phoebe have always had a very strong bond, and now its even stronger between them.” immunotherapy and cryoablation – where tumours are frozen – Mr Turkentine said “patients are not being given the best chance because we are catching them too late”.
“Kidney cancer has not had the same high profile of other major cancers such as breast, lung and prostate,” he added.
Kidney Cancer UK is now calling on the Government to support its research into the provision of a national CT scanning programme for those at risk. This is likely to include those over 55 and people with a family history of the disease.
The charity also said better clinical guidelines to help GPs identify the hard to recognise disease were “desperately needed”.
Kidney cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the UK. About 12,600 people are diagnosed with the disease every year – 34 every day. In
2016 more than 4,600 people died from it.
A study of 270 people between August and September of this year found that 45 per cent of patients were initially misdiagnosed, with their cancer mistaken for other nonmalignant conditions.
When the diagnosis was made, a high number said it was an accidental find.
The most common symptoms are fatigue, pain in the back or side, night sweats, blood in the urine and weight loss. The illness was commonly mistaken for conditions such as a urine infection or kidney stones.
‘She has come on in leaps and bounds’