Peter Andre's Emotional Campaign to Save a Relative's Life
Singer Peter Andre has issued a heartfelt plea to the public, urging support for a critical campaign that could save the life of a family member engaged in a gruelling battle with cancer. The campaign focuses on finding a stem cell donor for Harish, the 72-year-old father of Peter Andre's sister-in-law, Sunny Andrea, who resides in Harrow.
Desperate Search for a Matching Donor
Harish has been diagnosed with high-risk MDS, a rare and life-threatening form of blood cancer, necessitating a stem cell transplant for a second chance at life. His Indian heritage complicates the search, as finding an eligible donor from South Asian backgrounds is particularly challenging due to underrepresentation on donor registers.
Peter Andre, leveraging his celebrity status, has shared the urgent appeal on his social media platforms, accompanied by an emotional caption from Sunny: "Big thank you to my bro in law! Please repost, register below & let’s help save my beautiful daddy." In a video message, Peter emphasised, "This is for my sister-in-law Sunny's dad. Please, if you can, spread this on - somebody might see it and go, actually that’s me. And you could help save a life. Thank you very much in advance."
Family's Heartbreaking Struggle
Sunny, married to Peter's older brother Danny since 2014, is leading the campaign in collaboration with blood cancer charity DKMS. She describes her father as a "much-loved dad and grandad" who loves cooking for friends and family and is celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary this week. However, the joyous occasion has been overshadowed by his health crisis.
Sunny expressed her devastation: "It’s devastating. My dad is my best friend – the kindest man with the heart of gold who always seems to have time for everybody else and simply adores his family and his grandkids. One day, we were planning family dinners, trips, retirement, and the next, we were handed a leaflet and told to process the fact that he has cancer."
She highlighted the unfairness of the situation, noting that her father's Indian ethnicity reduces his chances of finding a matching donor. Stem cell transplants are crucial for blood cancer patients like Harish, as they allow the body to regenerate and heal. Unfortunately, only one in three patients find a match within their family, and most rely on strangers from the donor register, with just 7% of the eligible UK population signed up.
Urgent Call for Donor Registration
Danny, Peter's brother and Harish's son-in-law, told the Mirror, "Harish is my father in law, a wonderful, loving caring man who always puts everyone else before himself, he dotes on his family, especially our children, his grand kids, we even named our son after him. it is such a cold and lonely feeling when you have a loved one going through this. Please help."
The family is working with DKMS to encourage more people to register as potential stem cell donors. The process is simple, involving a few health questions and painless cheek swabs, with free kits available from the DKMS website. While the campaign particularly targets people of South Asian heritage, anyone aged 17-55 in good health can sign up.
Bronagh Hughes, a DKMS spokesperson, explained, "For Harish and patients like him, a total stranger joining the register could give them their lives back. The process is very simple; it’s so easy to give someone a second chance. Joining the register only requires a quick health questionnaire and a few simple and painless mouth swabs. It takes ten minutes of your time, but you could be the match that someone is waiting for."
Broader Impact and Statistics
Sunny added, "We just need the right person to join the register, and the right person could be you. People joining the register in support of my dad would mean everything to us, and it could even save a life." The campaign underscores a broader issue: every 14 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer, the third most common cause of cancer death. At any time, around 2,000 people in the UK need a stem cell transplant, and nearly 13,000 die from blood cancer annually.
Donating stem cells is often straightforward, with nine out of ten cases not requiring surgery; instead, it involves a quick outpatient process similar to donating blood platelets. By raising awareness, Peter Andre and his family hope to increase donor registrations, potentially saving not only Harish's life but also others in similar situations.
