Hundreds join race to help brave Telford boy

Ihsan Khan from Leegomery was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, a rare blood condition, last month.

It means his bone marrow and stem cell can’t produce enough red or white blood cells, and none of his family is a match for donations.

So caring people from throughout Wellington and beyond attended two blood drives over the weekend in the hopes of finding a perfect match.

Ihsan’s mother, Assia, said she suspected something when her son began coming home from school with several large bruises.

On March 8, they went to the Princess Royal Hospital where doctors carried out tests on the boy, and gave Assia the some bad news.

In the two months since, Ihsan’s story in the Shropshire Star caught the attention of Gemma Elsmore, of Race Against Blood Cancer, who jumped into action to try and find someone who could help. The first blood drive was held at Jamia Masjid Ghousia Mosque in Regent Street, Wellington on Friday.

A second was held at Telford Central Mosque in King Street the following day.

“I read the article in the Shropshire Star and, although Ihsan has abastic aneomia which isn’t a form of blood cancer, we thought we could probably do something to support him,” Gemma said.

“After liaising with his family, we decided that we would organise two donor drives at the local mosques. It was a race against time, because we had to do it before Ramadan on Monday.”

Ramadan is a month of fasting, and it is not recommended to give blood during that time.

Survival

But, with just days to go before fasting began, dozens of people turned out to support Ihsan and his family.

Gemma said: “It’s an amazing feeling to see so many people turn out to help.

“All you want to do is find a match for this little boy, but also if we can increase the diversity on the stem cell register to give others in a similar position a chance of survival then it is all worthwhile.

“Our ultimate goal at Race Against Blood Cancer is to increase the number of ethnic backgrounds on the register. It has been a bit difficult at other events due to communication barriers or misconceptions of blood cancer, but hopefully we can put some of those barriers aside and get everybody on board.”

Gemma said she hoped the two events would turn out a perfect match.

Match

“Ideally you need to find a 10/10 match – that’s the best chance of survival for someone with blood cancer,” she said.

“Ihsan’s sister is a 9/10 match, but to make it work we need a 10/10 match.

“Although we’re trying to look for someone from an Asian background, there could be others who would be a match, which is why we’ve been inviting people from all ethnic backgrounds.”

Among those at the event was Ihsan’s father, Imran, who thanked everybody for their support.

Kind-hearted

“When you’re in such a difficult situation, when you see people turn out in these numbers, it is very nice to see,” he said. “It just goes to show what a great unity we have here.”

“It is great to see how many nice, kind-hearted people there are. Hopefully someone is a good match.”

Imran said it was a rush to spread awareness of the two events.

“A lot of it spread itself,” he said. “A lot of people saw the story in the Shropshire Star and it touched many good hearts. A lot of people have turned up to donate for the stem cell register and hopefully to be a match.

“We have been devastated since he was diagnosed. It has been the worst days of our lives. To get this sort of response in just five days – I am humbled and very grateful for it.”

Anybody who couldn’t attend the two events can visit raceagainstbloodcan cer.com for instructions on how to register.