Baby joy tinged with sadness

A CLEVEDON couple are having to come to terms with the heartbreaking news that their newborn son cannot help to save his terminally-ill brother's life.Laura Richards and Aaron Powell, of Treefield Road, are delighted they have another son, Lincoln Harry, who was born on July 31 and is thriving, but their joy is tinged with sadness.The couple had been hoping that their second child would prove to be the ideal donor for their two-year-old son, Memphis, who has rare form of leukaemia.But a few days after Lincoln's birth, doctors told them that tests had revealed that their new baby would be unable to help their toddler who desperately needs a bone marrow transplant.Until recently, Memphis, who medics had predicted would not see his second birthday, was showing no symptoms of the life-threatening disease and was running around just like any other little boy.But he has just spent a fortnight in hospital having chemotherapy after a troublesome ear infection failed to clear up.Now, with time running out, specialists are planning to take bone marrow from dad Aaron, whose tissue type is a 50 per cent match with his elder son's, and carry out a transplant operation on Memphis within the next couple of months. Laura said: "Aaron and I wanted another child, regardless of whether he or she would be able to help Memphis, and we're delighted that Lincoln is doing really well."There was a one in four chance that he would provide the 100 per cent tissue-type match that would make him an ideal donor for Memphis. Unfortunately he isn't, so doctors are planning to go ahead with a transplant using Aaron's bone marrow."We're disappointed that Lincoln isn't the ideal match that we'd hoped for, but we'd prepared ourselves for that possibility as much as we could." Laura and Aaron are urging North Somerset Times readers to log onto www.anthonynolan.org.uk for more information about becoming a bone marrow donor.