In memory of Newry’s brave leukaemia fighter, Daniel Greer, a family member will now be tackling a mammoth cycle to raise funds for the charity that works tirelessly to save the lives of those with blood cancers.
In September 2024, at just 16 years old, Daniel sadly lost his two year battle with acute myeloid leukaemia.
Following his diagnosis in 2022, Daniel’s family campaigned relentlessly urging people to sign up to the stem cell register, with the understanding that a transplant was his only chance of survival.
Only one in four people will find a match within their family and unfortunately Daniel fell into that 75 percentile, therefore he needed a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.
Their campaign was shared widely and a suitable donor was eventually located for Daniel, enabling his first transplant to take place in a Bristol hospital in October 2022.
And, though he went on to have a further two stem cell transplants, his family never gave up their appeal for donors to join the register, understanding more than most the difference it can make to blood cancer patients like Daniel.
Throughout their time raising awareness, “thousands of people” signed up as bone marrow/stem cell donors in response to Daniel’s story.
And now, in Daniel’s memory his cousin Dominic Delargy has committed to cycle from London to Paris in June as part of a sponsored ride to raise money for a UK charity and stem cell register, The Anthony Nolan Trust.
Dominic explains: “The trust is a charity that matches stem cell donors with patients in need of life-saving transplants, primarily for blood cancers like leukaemia.
“It also facilitates the use of umbilical cord blood, which contains stem cells that can regenerate a patient’s bone marrow. In Daniel’s case, the trust sourced and arranged two umbilical cord blood transplants.”
Dominic has set his target at £2,000 – which he says he might “sneak upwards” if he’s nearly there!
At the time of writing Dominic has already almost the halfway point of that target and is eternally grateful for the kind donations and support.
You can follow Dominic’s progress on the Do it for Daniel Facebook page here or on Dominic’s own Bluesky account here.
