here's a snippet from a leading newspaper article regarding his illness
here's a part from the news paper today
A couple from Folksworth say they are hoping to have a baby using specialist IVF treatment to provide the right cells to help cure their seriously ill son.
After much soul-searching, Sarah Allen (31) and Dan Andrews (31) of Folksworth, near Stilton, say they want to use IVF treatment to create a child who will be able to save its brother’s life.
Doctors will take eggs and sperm from the couple to make a collection of embryos, which they will make sure are free of the rare Diamond Blackfan Anaemia that afflicts their five-year-old son Jamie Andrews.
They will also check that before being implanted in Sarah the embryo is a match for Jamie’s bone marrow.
Once the new baby is born, doctors will take stem cells from the umbilical cord for testing.
Those stem cells will be frozen for a year during which time Jamie’s new brother or sister will be checked for any illnesses.
The stem cells will be injected into Jamie in the hope it cures him of his debilitating disease.
But if that does not work, bone marrow would later be taken from the new sibling and injected into Jamie.
During a desperate battle for good health, Jamie has undergone more than 140 blood transfusions during his short life and still needs one every fortnight to keep him alive.
His chance of a recovery if he was to receive marrow from an unrelated donor would be just 31 per cent but from a matching sibling it would shoot up to 95 per cent.
By a cruel twist, none of his two brothers, Nathan (13), Matthew (12), and two sisters, Katie (9) and Hollie (4), are a match.
Mum Sarah said: “There is a lot of controversy surrounding designer babies but I’m not interested in the colour of its eyes or the sex.
“All I want to have is a healthy baby who can save my son’s life.
She added: “He is my little best buddy. We have been through so much together. I am terrified if we don’t make the right decision we will have to go for a treatment option that’s not safe. As a mother I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we get the best. I’m sure people will judge me but all I can say to those people is ‘walk a mile in my shoes’.”
Sarah said: “If he doesn’t have this treatment Jamie won’t make it past his teenage years. I don’t know if I could cope if I lost him and I daren’t think what the effect would be on his brothers and sisters.”
The couple are currently talking to doctors about the likelihood of getting IVF treatment on the NHS. If that is not possible the couple believe they will have to raise £8,000 a cycle to pay for the treatment.
A spokesman for Peterborough City Hospital said: “The primary care trust would hold a specialist case board which would decide if this can be paid for by the NHS.
He added: “If not this kind IVF procedure can be done and has been done in the UK.”
Jamie is one of only 125 people in the UK to be diagnosed with Diamond Blackfan Anaemia but added complications make him the only person in the world with the problem.
His body cannot produce blood properly, meaning his body cannot fight off an infection and struggles to receive oxygen.
But his internal organs are slowly beginning to break down because of the transfusions and his only hope is a bone marrow transplant.
Anyone who has any fundraising ideas or who would like to donate money to help Jamie canvisit
www.thejamieandrewsappeal.co.uk
Little Jamie is one in seven billion
DIAMOND Blackfan Anaemia is an incredibly rare condition affecting 125 people in the UK and an estimated 600 worldwide.
The genetic condition means the body does not produce red blood cells properly, starving the organs of oxygen
But little Jamie Andrews (5) is missing part of his DNA meaning he can not produce white blood cells or platelets either.
This makes it impossible for him to fight off an infection or form blood clots.
Experts think he is the only person in the world to suffer this problem
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