Incredible response to Cheshire father Pete McCleave's stem cell plea

A man from Cheshire who is in a desperate search for a stem cell donor, has praised the generosity of Granada Reports viewers following an amazing response to his story.

Dad-of-two Pete McCleave, has been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer, and given a prognosis of two years to live.

His only hope of survival is a stem cell transplant. But because Pete is mixed-race, that search has been made even harder, due to poor representation of Black and minority ethnic communities on the register.

On 25 March 2022, Granada Reports ran a feature on Pete's search through his family history, in a bid to target his campaign to find a donor.

Following the report airing on ITV, more than 2,300 new registrations were made onto the stem cell donor register.

Pete said: “ITV and the phenomenally generous people of the north west have done it again!

"Over 2300 new registrations and counting since the article on my family heritage went live. Amazing !!

"Thank you again for supporting my campaign and stepping up to save lives!!"

Pete set up his campaign 10,000 donors, after his diagnosis, in a bid to get as many people to sign up to the donor register as possible.

The campaign has already matched 17 patients with potentially life-saving donors, and encouraged more than 93,000 people to sign up to the donor register.

• How do you donate stem cells and does it hurt?

In about 90% of the cases the stem cells are taken from the bloodstream - just like giving blood. The donation takes 3-5 hours on one or two consecutive days. No surgery is necessary, you can usually leave the clinic the same day.

• Am I missing stem cells after the donation?

The body reproduces the blood stem cells within about two weeks. The procedure of donating them is comparable to a blood donation, and does not lead to a permanent loss of stem cells.

• Who can donate?

If you are aged between 17 and 55 years and in general good health, then you may be able to register as a blood stem cell donor. If you register when you are 17, you will not be able to donate blood stem cells yet, but on your 18th birthday, you will automatically be activated in our database and included in the global donor searches.

There is much more information on stem cell donation on the DKMS website here.

Find out more about Peter's campaign 10,000 Donors, and how to sign up to the stem cell donor register here.