Our 2 year old daughter Ripley was diagnosed with high risk Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in January 2017. Throughout her treatment we were supported by countless healthcare professionals and charities all doing their best to make things as easy as possible for us as a family. Unfortunately Ripley passed away as a result of her Leukaemia in October 2017.


We were lucky that Ripley remained her usual energetic and cheeky self until the very end. She had a positive impact on the lives of everyone she met and was a kind and empathetic little girl who didn’t like to see anyone else sad or in pain. We are fundraising for the many charities that supported us in this time so that they can continue their great work supporting other families, easing some of their sadness and pain, in memory of Ripley.

You can see all of the charities we are supporting and events that we are holding in Ripley’s memory on her Just Giving Page:

https://www.justgiving.com/remember/497598/Ripley%20Olive-Corless

As part of her treatment Ripley underwent a Stem Cell Transplant in April 2017. She had no siblings so we sought an unrelated match from the bone marrow registry. We also were unable to find a 9/10 or 10/10
match for her from a living donor and so she received her transplant from a donated umbilical cord. You can see her in the picture above receiving her stem cells on Day 0 of her treatment.


Whilst for Ripley this was not enough to cure her Leukaemia for others with a good enough match it might be and we want as many people as possible to join the Bone Marrow Registry. For us her transplant gave us 6 more happy months and memories with our beautiful daughter.

To join the bone marrow register you must:

- be between 16 and 30 years old
- be in good health
- weigh over 7st 12lbs (50kg)
- have a BMI lower than 40

Anthony Nolan Trust also adds the following information: 

"We particularly need more young men to sign up. They produce more stem cells than women and are six times more likely to donate, but make up just 15% of our register. 

We also need more donors from black and minority ethnic backgrounds as we often struggle to find matches for people in these groups.

Gay men can join the bone marrow register. Everyone who joins our register goes through the same health and suitability checks – your sexuality doesn’t matter one bit."

To join visit the link below:

https://www.anthonynolan.org/8-ways-you-could-save-life/donate-your-stem-cells/apply-join-our-register

If you are not able to join the register there is information on
the Anthony Nolan website about other ways to help and other registries to join. If you are between the ages of 17-55 you can join here:

https://www.dkms.org.uk/en/register-now

If you are not eligible to join the register, then it is still possible to support the work of Anthony Nolan trust through encouraging those around you to join and/or a donation. Here is what your donations could support:

*£7 - a spit kit to allow someone to join the register
*£31 - one hour post transplant support
*£60 - cover the cost of a person joining the register

We would also like to encourage you to give blood. Ripley had a number of blood and platelet transfusions as part of her treatment and these kept her bright and energetic until her last few days with us. Here is the link to the website for those of you that plan to do this too. 

https://www.blood.co.uk/who-can-give-blood/

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.