Only a matching bone marrow donor will extend the life of Peter McCleave as there is no known cure for the blood cancer
A charity chief travelled to the other side of the world in a bid to find a stem cell donor who could help to keep him alive. Newcastle United fan Peter McCleave, 46, was diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer that affects bone marrow, in 2017. The shock news came after he had taken part in an Iron Man triathlon. Doctors told him then that he could have seven years to live; that passed in March this year. He told how he has been kept alive by progress in pioneering treatments for the disease. But only a matching bone marrow donor will extend his life as there is no cure for the disease. Peter has helped to save 23 lives, raised £500m for the charity DKMS and found 130,000 donor register volunteers. Now he is trying to find his own ‘blood brother’. Peter’s family have all been tested; none were found to be a stem cell match for potential transplant. But his dad Mike, 76, was originally from the island of Macau, an island 67 km (42 miles) off Hong Kong, and a 12,000-mile round trip from the UK. His Portuguese-Chinese heritage is so unusual that Peter decided to travel to Macau to look for relatives, no matter how distant, who might be able to save his life as a stem cell match. He has recently been appointed as chief executive of DKMS UK, the blood cancer charity.
His personal quest came after he helped to recruit 130,000 potential donors to their register. He has also helped to raise more than £500,000 for DKMS and their charity partners. Peter, who lives with wife Jenny, 46, and their children Max, 14, and Seb, 12, in Bunbury, Cheshire, told the Mirror : “I was originally diagnosed in 2017 and told that I had seven years to live, and that passed in March of this year. Dying is an ethereal thing, I am still alive because of the progress that has been made in medicine. If that stops working, I have maybe 3-5 years worth of treatments depending on how I react to them. I am optimistic that medicine will advance. It is more difficult for my family, with two young kids, that is the really hard thing.” Peter is one of the 2,000 UK patients, each year, who is reliant on a stranger for a lifesaving blood stem cell match. So he set off on his search for a ‘genetic twin’ last month.
In Macau, he attended a conference called Encontro, an event that happens every four years, where Macanese people return to the country for a week of cultural celebrations, and Peter promoted the bone marrow donor register. The former Portuguese colony, 40 miles from Hong Kong, is one of the most densely populated places in the world and known as the gambling capital.
It is the mix of Chinese and Portuguese which Pete needs, with his grandmother Lucille Da’Costa born in Macau to a Chinese mother and a Portuguese father, while his grandfather was from Northern Ireland. The rich history and racial mix of Macau means his search is being shared worldwide, with potential donors coming forward to do the simple swab tests required. “The response was phenomenal,” said Peter, whose story will also feature in an ITV documentary in the New Year. As it stands, only two percent of the UK population is signed up to the aligned stem cell register. People from a black, Asian or other minority ethnic (BAME) background currently make up 14 percent of the registry. They only have a 20% chance of finding the best possible stem cell donor match, compared with 69% for those from northern European backgrounds.
Five years ago, Peter’s son Max wrote a letter that went viral trying to find a blood stem cell match. More than 20,000 joined a donor register after Max’s letter was made public. Max wrote: “If my daddy doesn’t find a stem cell match he will only have seven more years with me and I want lots more.” Peter has had several rounds of chemotherapy but still needs to find a matching blood stem to extend his life. He said of his trip to Macau: “At the end of the day, I feel as if I have done all that I can to find a match. “I can look my sons in the eye and say that I did everything.” Peter intends to return to Macau next year to ‘continue the conversation’ about donation. He added: “My prognosis came with a caveat. I was told that if I could find a stem cell donor, there was no reason why I couldn’t live a normal life. Ever since then I’ve been set on raising awareness of blood cancer.”
* www.dkms.org.uk/register-now
