The dad travelling half way around the world to Macau in search of a life-saving donor
Granada Reports Correspondent Mel Barham caught up with Pete and his family before the possibly life changing journey to Macau.
A father-of-two with blood cancer is travelling to the other side of the world in a bid to save his life.
Pete McCleave, 45, was told he had seven years to live after being diagnosed with myeloma in 2017.
The dad, from Bunbury in Cheshire, was told he could extend his life with a stem cell transplant, but he has struggled to find a genetic match because of his mixed heritage.
Now he is travelling to Macau, a small country off mainland China, in the hope that the community there will be his best hope of finding a stem cell donor.
Pete's mix of Macanese, Irish and English has meant finding a genetically compatible tissue type has been extremely difficult.
Pete's grandmother Lucille Da'Costa was born in Macau, to a Chinese mother and a Portuguese father, while his grandfather was from Northern Ireland.
He is travelling more than 6,000 miles to attend Encontro - an event that happens every four years, where Macanese diaspora return to the country for a week of cultural celebrations.
Pete is hoping to encourage people of Macanese heritage at the event to sign up to the donor register - in the hope one of them may be the match he needs to save his life.
He launched the campaign 10,000 donors to get more donors on the stem cell register, so far more than 108,000 potential donors have signed, with 23 life saving matches have been found - but none of them a match for Pete.
"This trip could literally be life extending, it could be that important," Pete said.
"I don't pin all my hopes on it, but it's the best chance I will have of finding that potential genetic twin from that region.
"I am very, very aware that this blend of Chinese, Portuguese, Irish and English is super, super rare.
"But it will genuinely allow me to say, if the worse were to happen, I did everything I possibly could do."
Despite travelling half way around the world, Pete says he remains realistic, but it was something he had to do.
"I'm honest with myself about the chances," he added.
"But if I didn't do it, if I didn't take advantage of this opportunity, this literally once every four years get together of people, I don't think I could look at myself or my family and say I did everything that I possibly could to try and bridge that gap.
"And I think that's what makes it worth trying.
"And it will also help me to genuinely, were the worse to happen, make peace with that moment and say I did everything I could do."
He continued: "It's time, you can't put a price on time. Everyone has their reason for fighting for something, and my family is my reason."
Pete's cause first came to the public's attention after his, then eight-year-old, son Max wrote a letter pleading for others to join the stem cell registry.
It began the 10,000 donors campaign - in a bid to find a match for Pete, but also for others - including Patrick Languzzi, from Boston, who had a 3% chance of surviving blood cancer before he found a donor from a stranger who lives in Chorley - Alex Christopher.
Pete is currently in chemotherapy which is keeping him stable, but it won't cure him, that is the aim of the stem cell transplant.
Visiting the casino-capital of the East is the last roll of the dice for Pete
Pete's wife, Jenny McCleave, said finding a match "would be life-changing."
"There is obviously that constant worry that it is going to come back with a vengeance, which it could do any day," she said.
"But because he is so fit and well and healthy at the moment, if he was to find a match now, it would be fantastic because his body would be able to take it."
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.