Daniel de Gale

Daniel David De Gale (14 March 1987 – 8 October 2008) inspired a major push to promote awareness of Leukaemia in the United Kingdom's black community when, as a child, his mother and stepfather launched a search for suitable bone marrow donors and a charity.

Daniel, born In Hammersmith London, but raised in the London Borough of Croydon, was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1993 at the age of six. Daniel was put on a 2 year course of chemotherapy which he completed in March 1995. But after being in remission for just 9 months, he relapsed in December 1995, when a routine blood test revealed leukaemia cells again. With no assurance that a second course of chemotherapy would be successful his mother, Beverley De Gale, sought a bone marrow transplant for Daniel.

Daniel's chances of finding a match within the UK were as low as 1 in 250,000 as there were only 550 African, African Caribbean, and people of mixed parentage on the UK register. Beverley and her partner, Orin Lewis, set up the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust in June 1996 to raise awareness, and to support and assist black and mixed parentage people suffering with leukaemia and all other blood related cancers. ACLT worked "in partnership with the Anthony Nolan Trust," as it was reported in Daniel's obituary. The charity also became involved with recruiting potential donors from many influential organisations such as the Fire Brigade, the Black Police Association, colleges and universities. Daniel was given a second course of chemotherapy but in September 1998 he suffered a second relapse. Subsequent publicity encouraged various celebrities to help encourage possible donors to come forward. Celebrities such as John Barnes, Colin Salmon, the Duchess of York, Ian Wright and John Fashanu offered their support and subsequently became patrons of the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust.

Daniel finally won his battle against Leukaemia when on 16 June 1999 at the age of 12 he received a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated American donor, Doreene Carney, at Great Ormond Street Hospital. This enabled Daniel to live a full and fruitful life including successfully passing his exams at school and University.

Daniel was one of the first black persons in the UK to receive a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. As a result, many sufferers and their families are now coming forward as donors and receiving support from the ACLT.

Daniel was in full remission and free of Cancer, but due to complications with his health that led to multiple organ failure he died aged 21 on the 8th October 2008 in hospital surrounded by his family.

The ACLT charity raises awareness which enables potential donors to come forward at the ACLT registration drives to be involved in the process of offering hope and a healthy future to someone whose disorder may otherwise prove fatal. The ACLT has raised the numbers of potential Black/Mixed Race donors from 550 to approx. 27,000 and many lives have been saved in the process.

What is Bone Marrow?

Bone marrow is a spongy tissue found within bones. All blood cells are produced within the marrow. To sustain the necessary levels of blood cells the bone marrow of an adult mist produce about 3,000,000 red blood cells and 120,000 white blood cells every second. All these cells originate from a small population of stem cells. Less than one in 5,000 of the marrow cells is a stem cell.

Many sufferers and their families contact the ACLT from the UK and around the world asking for financial assistance or to raise awareness and recruit potential donors in an attempt to find suitable donors.

Unfortunately, 24,000 sufferers require life saving bone marrow transplants at any one time.

The aim of the ACLT is to raise the required funds to start an independent ACLT Bone Marrow Register that will allow the charity to undertake world wide donor searches. The ultimate aim is to be able to fund the testing of the many potential bone marrow donors stepping forward.

The Registry will be UK based and working in conjunction with the world bone marrow registers, which will enable the ACLT to coordinate the implementation and planning of raising awareness campaigns within the UK for the under represented communities. The charity wants to start small and as funds start to come in will grow, allowing the register to then recruit greater numbers of potential donors from the under represented groups around the world and in future have ACLT laboratories enabling an in-house testing and research facility.