THE pregnant mother of a 12-year-old girl who was diagnosed with leukaemia last week is raising funds to help use her unborn child’s stem cells to help save his sister’s life.
Ashley Tilley, from Finchley, said she was “devastated” when her daughter Courtney was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia last Tuesday and began chemotherapy at University College London Hospital almost immediately.
However, Miss Tilley, 33, who is five months pregnant, said she was given added hope when she discovered the stem cells from her unborn son’s placenta and umbilical cord could be frozen and used for future bone marrow transplants.
Stem cell transplants can be given to restore blood-producing bone marrow that can be destroyed by high-dose chemotherapy. Doctors have a much higher chance of finding a match in a patient’s sibling.
Miss Tilley said she started researching stem cell treatments after doctors warned her Courtney, who attends The Compton School in Summers Lane, North Finchley, could be suffering from leukaemia.
“It was quite amazing actually, because I have been trying to have a kid for nine years,” said the mother-of-three. “I fell pregnant last September and then Courtney got ill a few weeks back. It’s like everything happens for a reason.”
However, she was told the NHS does not store umbilical or cord stem cells, and Miss Tilley must now raise £5,000 to store the regenerative cells at a private bank.
She told The Press: “I am going to keep trying to raise this money because I don’t want my daughter being like this for the rest of her life and struggling.”
The stay-at-home mum, who has two other sons, said the family had been rocked by the diagnosis.
She said: “Everyone is devastated to be honest, but she makes it really easy because she is always smiling. The amount of people who have turned around to say to her they wish they could trade places with her and she says she wouldn’t want to because then they would have been sick.
“She’s such a lovely girl. It’s just terrible it is happening to her.”
Family friend, Toni Fulton, 27, helped set up the fundraising website that has raised nearly £1,000 in just six days.
She said: “Courtney is genuinely the sweetest little girl. It is horrendous; it is absolutely shocking to see anyone go through it let alone a child.”