Yvette Gate has a life-threatening illness called aplastic anaemia, or bone marrow failure. She was the inspiration for this Campaign that was originally started by her parents in the summer of 2005. Yvette lives with her family in Bristol, England.
In August this year Yvette will be thirteen years old, a teenager. But since she became ill in March of 2004 she has not been to school and she is unable to go out like other kids of her age. Every week she has to go to hospital for transfusions of platelets and monthly for red blood. The risk of infection is a great danger to her. Yet in the face of great difficulties she shows great courage.
All medical attempts to treat Yvette's condition have been unsuccessful. Her only hope of recovery now is to find a suitable matching bone marrow donor. But there are not enough black potential donors on the Bone Marrow Register.
Yvette Gate is the inspiration for this campaign; "Bone Marrow Campaign" - the Campaign is about highlighting bone marrow illnesses, stem cell / bone marrow transplants and encouraging registration of potential bone marrow donors onto the bone marrow register.
With the support of a small group of friends in Bristol (England), Yvette's family immediately went about campaigning to encourage members of the black and mixed race community to come forward and register as potential bone marrow donors. One of the first things they did was to learn how to build a website as an easily accessible central source of information.
All medical attempts to treat Yvette's condition have been unsuccessful. Her only hope of recovery now is to find a suitable matching bone marrow donor. But there are not enough black potential donors on the Bone Marrow Register.
But more black and mixed race donors are urgently needed. Can you help? If you are between 18 and 40 years old and in good health? Then please join the Bone Marrow Register. You could be someone's lifesaver. So please do something special - before it's too late.
On Friday November 17 Yvette's mum Mary flew to The Gambia in West Africa. She went to oversee the process of collecting blood samples from members of Yvette's extended family. These samples were then returned to Bristol for tissue typing to see if any may be a potential bone marrow donor for her. Unfortunately none turned out to be a match for Yvette. So now her life depends upon others like yourself.
Yvettes family now are the key factors to the yvette Bone Marrow Campaign to help save lives.
They do this by informing people about bone marrow, stem cells and bone marrow related illness. For many patients the only hope of a cure is through a procedure called a bone marrow transplant. But where does the bone marrow come from for a transplant?
Well, in over seventy percent of cases it comes from a stranger. From unrelated donors who have registered on the worldwide Bone Marrow Registry.
Working with other supportive organisations, they encourage those who are able to find out how they could be a life saver. They organise bone marrow registration clinics where people can come along, find out more and become a potential bone marrow donor - a potential life saver to someone. Here people are then able to join the Bone Marrow Register.
More information about bone marrow can be found by following the blue tab, and to find out how you can register as a potential donor follow the green one!
To support please contact David Gates below.
admin@yvettegate.co.uk
Postal address
PO Box 2538
Bristol
BS3 9AR
England
Phone
07768 257 292
MySpace
www.myspace.com/bonemarrowcampaign
