Stem cell donors found for Whitby girl Evie
The life of eight-year-old Evie Hodgson from Whitby with a rare blood disease has been saved after two stem cell donors were found after months of appeals.
The family of a girl from Whitby say they have received the best Christmas present ever after two stem cell donors were found to save the life of their daughter.
Evie Hodgson, 8, was diagnosed on the 28th of May this year with aplastic anaemia, a rare blood disease.
Her family has been appealing since then for people to put themselves onto the register to help find a match.
Evie said:
"It's a really nice feeling inside. It just makes me feel happy and excited at the same time. I'll definitely be going on a lot of bike rides because I used to do that a lot when I wasn't poorly."
Mum Tina said:
"I just don't know how you can describe how we feel; relief, excitement, delight and happiness. It was the news that we've been working so hard to get.
"I just feel as though we can look forward into the future start planning our lives again. We'd like to think come Easter, summer time, Evie will be back at school; she can be enjoying times with her friends and doing swimming. All the things that an eight-year-old little girl should be doing.
"Evie will go into hospital on the 5th of January and start her treatment which will be chemotherapy and total body radiation to prepare her body; and then the transplant will actually happen on the 14th of January."
Evie and Tina have been speaking to Greatest Hits Radio's Karen Liu:
Tina added:
"We've been really overwhelmed. I genuinely, genuinely thought it would be a very local thing. I never expected it to achieve what it's achieved. It is worldwide; we've had Dame Judy Dench send her a message, Anton Du Beke, Brian May, she loves Queen, and Olly Murs."
"It's been absolutely incredible and beyond anything we've ever expected but I think it just shows how much Evie has touched the hearts of the nation and many people around the world; she's just gripped them with her story and she's a gorgeous little girl with such a big heart.
"We are so proud to say that Evie has recruited over 25,000 new stem cell donors on the register. So not only has Evie found her hero, two people have said that they've been approached for potentially being donors for two other people.
"We just want to thank everybody for the immense support and words of encouragement along the way. It's been rough. Evie's been in hospital quite a lot and it's the lovely comments that come through that really keep us going. We're still going to need this because the hardest bit is yet to come when she goes in for her treatment."
You can follow Evie's story here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EvieNeedsaHero/
Anyone under the age of 30 can register to be a stem cell donor with Anthony Nolan: https://www.anthonynolan.org/8-ways-you-could-save-life/donate-your-stem-cells
If you are over the age of 30, you can register with DKMS: https://www.dkms.org.uk/en/register-now