Seven-year-old Rhiane Francois could need a life-saving bone marrow transplant if chemotherapy to treat her Leukaemia is unsuccessful. Her family are raising awareness about the illness, trying to get more people to sign up to become donors.
A bone marrow registration event is taking place in Coventry today to try to find a potentially life-saving transplant for a 7-year-old girl with leukaemia.
Rhiane Francois has Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and is undergoing chemotherapy, but if that doesn't work she'll need a bone marrow transplant.
Being half Indian, half Mauritian, she has a reduced chance of finding a donor match because there are fewer Asian and Black people signed up as bone marrow donors.
Today, the event at the Gurdwara Nanak Prakash in Coventry aims to tackle that. Between 1.00pm and 6:00pm people from every background are being encouraged to sign up to the transplant register.
And it does work, last month 2-year-old Guarav Bains from Tipton in the Black Country found a stem cell match after a similar push to encourage more donors to come forward. He is in hospital after having his operation on Thursday.
This week Rhiane has received a letter of support from the Queen, as the little girl tries to find herself a donor match.
West Midlands Weather: Windy on Sunday with showers and sunny spells
East Midlands Weather: Heavy rain over Derbyshire hills, drier and brighter elsewhere
The city’s spike in coronavirus cases has sparked a report that it may be the first UK location to be subjected to a district lockdown.