Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page. Noah and Otto's Big Haircut is to raise money and awareness of the need for people to register as stem cell donors to possibly save the life of someone with blood cancer. An illness that has touched our family over the past couple of years. If you can sponsor their efforts it would be greatly appreciated. The boys will be doing their Big Haircut on the 23rd of March. If we can hit the fund rasing target by then it would be awesome. We are very proud of them for doing this.

Our story is that in 2020 Noah and Otto's Aunt (my sister) was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). It's a particularly nasty form of blood cancer. Throughout 2020 she had to battle this disease with the added challenges of the Covid pandemic. It became clear that she would need a stem cell transplant at some point if other methods of controlling it were unsuccessful. 

Coincidently, my wife and I were previously on the DKMS blood stem cell register in the hope that we may have been a match for another relative that was diagnosed with the same illness. The process was a simple registration on the DKMS website, they then send a package for you to do a saliva swab and then you return it. Too easy! 

This earlier registration to the DKMS register helped get my donor details to my sister's doctors extremely quickly and they were able to confirm us as a strong match. I was then able to travel to Australia to donate stem cells in case she needed them. It was painless and was a peripheral stem cell collection. This is just 6-8 hours of your time. A walk in the park compared to what my sister and other blood cancer patients are going through. It's nothing to be scared of at all. I even mowed the grass at her house after my donation with a battery powered lawn mower. Shocking battery life I have to say haha. Bring back 2-stroke! Anyway...

My sister endured an extremely tough 2021 with many visits to hospital often spending months at a time away from family and friends all while navigating covid restrictions.  She went into remission several times and relapsed. It's an emotional rollercoaster. She went through losing her hair and changes in appearance which also creates a lot of stress and anxiety. It was a very rough road for her and her amazing, supportive husband and kids. To cut a long story short, in the second half of 2021 the stem cell transplant took place and we are happy to report it has been successful!

Siblings are the most likely stem cell match for someone with ALL. However not everyone is lucky enough to have a sibling and therefore it is important that as many people as possible register their details with charities like DKMS in order to increase the chances of finding a match for those that can't find one amongst their own family.

Otto and Noah are therefore helping raise awareness of this register by cutting their hair. This will be the first proper haircut for Otto in 4 years and about a year for Noah. They will be donating their hair to The Little Princess Trust who make wigs for cancer patients. 

Money raised through this JustGiving page will go to DKMS and we are all hoping you will donate some of your hard-earned cash as well as go to the DKMS website and request a swab kit. It takes a few minutes, and you could save a life anywhere in the world!

Cancer patients also need a lot of blood transfusions and blood is in short supply in a lot of hospitals. So please if you could also go and give blood regularly then that would be awesome!

Here are some links that take you to DKMS for more information and a swab kit. There are also links below if you want to  know more about The Little Princess Trust (you could donate your hair too) or how to give blood in the UK

https://www.dkms.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-donor

https://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/

https://www.blood.co.uk/

If you are in Australia you can do a similar donor registration at Australian Marrow Match or you can tell the Australian Red Cross that you'd like to be a donor when you give blood. Don't be put off by the terms "Bone Marrow" or "transplant". In 90% of cases it's as easy as the process I went through above.

https://www.australianmarrowmatch.org.au/donation-process

https://www.lifeblood.com.au/organ-and-tissue/bone-marrow

Thank you for visiting Noah and Otto's page. Please donate and we will post photos of their new haircuts.

Kind Regards,

Noah & Otto (Magda, Chris, Axel)

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.