Parents’ desperate bid to find lifesaver for two-year-old son Oscar

And The Gazette has backed a campaign to help find bone marrow donors, being dubbed Oscar’s Heroes, one of whom could help halt his illness with their donation.

Zoe and Jason Jacob received the news that all parents dread on February 12 when their son Oscar, pictured, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Now, the family is urging people to sign up to be bone marrow donors, a process which could help save their two-year-old son.

All people need to do to potenitally give the gift of life is sign up to the Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) register and take a simple swab test.

Oscar’s mum, 29-year-old Zoe, said: “Anyone could be one of Oscar’s heroes.”

The whirlwind journey for Zoe and Jason started when the pair took Oscar to Basingstoke hospital after they noticed some unusual bruising. After initial tests, he was transferred to Southampton General Hospital, where Zoe and Jason’s fears were realised.

Zoe told The Gazette: “When we noticed the bruises we knew something wasn’t quite right.

“He had some blood tests and was diagnosed straight away, and we were taken to the Piam Brown ward.

“He underwent introductory chemotherapy, which we were told has a good success rate, but when he completed that the doctors said there was still a lot of the cancer remaining and he would have to undergo further treatment.”

After being told that Oscar would have to either go through a harsher chemotherapy regiment or have a bone marrow transplant as his only chances of survival, the Beggarwood family decided to seek out a donor.

Although rare, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the most common type of childhood leukaemia, so it was a whirlwind of emotions for Zoe and Jason when they were told that the chemo had not worked.

Zoe added: “We had only just got past the news of the diagnosis and then we had the news that the chemo hadn’t worked so it was a real knock back.

“After talking to the doctors, we took the decision to opt for the bone marrow transplant, so now we just have to wait for a match.

“We just want people to sign up to the donor register so they can make a difference, even if doesn’t help Oscar it will be helping out someone else.

“So just by signing up to be on the donor register you will be one of Oscar’s heroes in my eyes.”

Oscar was moved back to Basingstoke hospital on Friday and is now waiting for a potential match to go ahead with the transplant.

For Zoe and Jason, it is now just a waiting game.

She added: “He is much more himself now, and it is great having him much closer to home.

“When he was going through the chemo he lost his spark, but he is now a lot more upbeat and we are just enjoying spending time with him as much as we can.”

The family has set up a Facebook page called Oscar Bob’s battle with Leukaemia, which people can keep up to date with his process.

If you wish to help out and become one of Oscar’s heroes and sign up to be a donor visit dkms.org.uk/en/register-now.

To show support for the Jacob’s family The Gazette is encouraging everyone who signs up to be a donor to share the message on social media using #OscarsHeroes or sending your story of registering to tim.birkbeck@basingstokegazette.co.uk.

The Facts

• There more than eight million donors on the DKMS register worldwide.

• Of these more than 350,000 are based in the UK.

• Every 20 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with some for of blood cancer.

• Around 30 per cent of people with blood cancer find a matching donor within their family.

• There are thousands of different tissue types in humans, making finding an exact match so difficult.

• People wishing to register can do so online and they will get sent a cheek swab kit.

• Once received people simply need to swab the inside of their cheek and send it back and this will be put into the database of donors.

• For bone marrow donations the blood is taken from the back of the hip bone using a special syringe. This is undertaken whilst under general anaesthetic.