My nephew, Matthew Harrison, is a careworker and was, until this year, a fit and healthy young man.
He now has a rare form of blood cancer called PRIMARY POLYTHEMIA VERA which is affecting the rest of his body.
It's caused by a faulty gene:- JAK2 and symptoms usually come on slowly and affect the elderly. Matthews has come on very quickly and he suffers from almost all of the symptoms, the worst being the effect on his liver and bone-marrow.
Matthew has lost a lot of weight and is in constant pain.
He resisted all our offers of fundraising at first, saying that there are more deserving than he. He finally agreed to me setting up the page on the understanding that any ''left-over'' donations would go to other charities!
He may need a bone-marrow and liver transplant.......and these are only two of his complications. He also gets massive amounts of fluid in his stomach and badly swollen limbs.
NHS Bolton haven't been able to help him and he's now in St James at Leeds awaiting an operation.
I've promised to match every £1 donated - up to £2K - so we could raise £4,000 to pay for much needed private tests, in the hope that Matthew will finally get a full diagnosis/prognosis and then his treatment can begin.
.........and he's recently been diagnosed with BUDD-CHIARI SYNDROME too - summat else no-one has ever heard of😪😔