{"id":29948,"date":"2019-08-19T11:15:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T10:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=29948"},"modified":"2019-08-19T11:15:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T10:15:19","slug":"teenagers-plea-after-diagnosed-with-leukaemia-for-the-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/19\/teenagers-plea-after-diagnosed-with-leukaemia-for-the-second-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager\u2019s Plea After Diagnosed With Leukaemia For The Second Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teenager Cameron Patel is raising awareness around bone marrow donation after suffering from Leukaemia for the the second time.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old from Knighton, Leicester\u00a0was sent tor to have a blood test and his life changed completely.<\/p>\n

Cameron was in A&E with a dangerously high heart rate when he got the results from that test.<\/p>\n

He had leukaemia and was rushed straight to the teenage cancer ward.<\/p>\n

“When I found out – you know how people say time slows down? – well it really did slow down, and I couldn’t speak,” Cameron told LeicestershireLive from his bed at Leicester Royal Infirmary.<\/p>\n

“I just looked at my dad, and he looked at me, and said that everything would be alright.”<\/p>\n

He spent the majority of the next five months in hospital where he received chemotherapy that left him weak and bed-bound for days at a time.<\/p>\n

After months of treatment that was both mentally and physically draining, the teenager went into remission in February this year.<\/p>\n

When Cameron was given the all-clear, he left the hospital feeling “optimistic and ready to move on with his life”, he said.<\/p>\n

He had been told that the chances of him relapsing were slim.<\/p>\n

“I did a big thing of telling all my mates I was cancer free. We all celebrated and went out for dinner.<\/p>\n

“I was back to living my life. I went clubbing a few times with my cousins and everything was back to normal.”<\/p>\n

Earlier in June, after catching a cold, Cameron now 19, started to get chest pains, as well as other worrying symptoms.<\/p>\n

It was not long before he was told by doctors that the leukaemia was back.<\/p>\n

“This time it hit quite hard, because you know what you’re about to go through,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You know what it is to go back to normality, and then to get that taken away from you again is just quite horrible.”<\/p>\n

Cameron, whose father is of South Asian heritage and mother is white, is now in desperate need of a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant – but doctors are struggling to find a suitable match due to his dual heritage and the shortage of donors of similar ethnic background.<\/p>\n

Cameron has issued a heartbreaking plea for anyone willing to sign up to become a potential lifesaver to do just that.<\/p>\n

According to the Anthony Nolan charity which supports people suffering from blood cancer,\u00a0 only 20 per cent of BME (black and minority ethnic) patients find the best possible match from a stranger. The figure for the wider population is 69 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cameron praised his friends and family for the constant support they have given him.<\/p>\n

“All of my friends have been so supportive, they’ve been here no matter what I need, if my family needs anything they’re there – they bring food, clothes, everything,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My friends have been lovely.”<\/p>\n

He has shared a plea on social media in the hope of reaching people who would be willing to become marrow donors, and received a huge response.<\/p>\n

The post was spotted by Nick Hodges, the founder of the Bodie Hodges Foundation that supports organ donation and families suffering bereavement.<\/p>\n

Nick also happens to be Cameron\u2019s former PE teacher from Lancaster School for Boys, now known as The Lancaster Academy, in Knighton,\u00a0<\/a>Leicester.<\/p>\n

He is now hoping to spread awareness across Leicester and reach out the BME community to join the donor register and find out if they are a potential match.<\/p>\n

‘If you would be willing to take a transplant, be willing to donate’<\/p>\n

Leicester boxer Rendall Munroe also shared the teenager\u2019s social media post online after hearing about it through a coach, Harry Singh.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy social media was going absolutely crackers,” the Boxing Binman told LeicestershireLive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can use my profile to spread awareness and generate support then I will 100 per cent do that. I hope all goes well for Cameron.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can help Cameron by joining the bone marrow donor list through a number of charities including the Anthony Nolan charity or the German Bone Marrow charity, which is supporting the teenager’s plea on social media.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teenager Cameron Patel is raising awareness around bone marrow donation after suffering from Leukaemia for the the second time. The 18-year-old from Knighton, Leicester\u00a0was sent tor to have a blood test and his life changed completely. Cameron was in A&E with a dangerously high heart rate when he got the results from that test. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,37,3,112,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}