Father urges people with mixed ethnic backgrounds to become stem donors
Video report by ITV News Meridian's Penny Silvester
A father-of-two with blood cancer is calling for more people with mixed ethnic backgrounds to sign up as potential stem cell donors.
Mark Kan from Tadley in Hampshire has Chinese grandparents and says it has been harder to find a match to treat his leukaemia.
Mark Kan was diagnosed four years ago, and after treatment he was in remission.
However in June, he was told the cancer has come back.
His best chance of survival from leukaemia is now a stem cell transplant.
Stem cells replace blood cells that are not working properly and can go on to grow healthy new blood cells.
He says: "The good people of the NHS have managed to get me through a combination of treatment and chemo drugs to a good stable position at the moment. But I'm fully aware that all my risks, challenges and dangers are yet to come."
The challenge now is to find a matching donor.
His family on his father's side are Chinese and currently there is a shortage of donors from ethnic backgrounds.
His daughter Lauren says it has been hard on the whole family, increased by the coronavirus pandemic.
"I think Covid has made it ten times harder. We can't go to hospital to be there with him. To see my dad have to go through it again is completely devastating. We're a strong family and he's done it before. I have faith, he can do it again and he just needs a helping hand."
Amelia Chong, from the Anthony Nolan Blood Cancer Charity, says the chances of finding the best match if you are from a minority ethnic background is lower than someone from a white Northern European background.
She says: "If you are from a white northern European background you have around a 69% chance of finding the best possible match but if you are from a minority ethnic background like Mark, then that drops to around 20%. The two main reasons are because people from ethnic minority backgrounds make up a smaller proportion of the UK population, and they tend to have much more diverse tissue types."
Mark and his family are now urging people from minority ethnic backgrounds to consider becoming donors, which could help save multiple lives.