My husband, Modestus, has a little brother, Chibundu (affectionately known as Bobo). Bobo is like most other 16-year-olds, his world consists of playing video games (especially Call Of Duty), browsing on YouTube, and hanging out with his friends at the cinema or gaming centres. However, unlike his friends, he has become very unwell with sickle cell anaemia, the same disease that he has already lost four siblings to. So, it’s only too clear to those who love him what little future he has unless something can be done to save him.

Bobo loves to keep everyone laughing and smiling, he takes all the hospital visits in his stride even when he is in agonising pain which he is in all the time, with a permanently dislocated shoulder (his tendons and muscles are too weak to have it reset). He is a real fighter.

Up until now the maintenance treatment of blood transfusions has been enough to keep him stable, but recently his body has been generating too many sickle cells, so his body stopped responding to the usual treatments. The next stage was to have a blood replacement treatment where he was pumped with nearly 10 pints of new blood, but even that hasn’t worked. His only hope for a normal life expectancy is to have a bone marrow transplant and this was not a possibility until very recently, as it used to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and flying to the UK.

Promisingly, a new hospital has opened close to him where he can now get the surgery, and that’s all I need to know, I’ll do anything I can to save Bobo’s life. So, I’m fundraising to try to get him the £23,000 surgery that he needs for a cure.

If, for whatever reason, the surgery can't go ahead (for example, if Bobo dies before we reach the target), then the funds raised will go towards end-of-life care for him and the Sickle Cell Society to help with research, care and treatment.