Football club gifts sponsorship to stem cell drive

The drive in Bromsgrove has been organised to encourage more people to register as stem cell donors

A non-league football club has gifted its upcoming match sponsorship to a stem cell donor drive in aid of a local teenage boy.

Rather than accept sponsorship from a commercial partner, Bromsgrove Sporting, based in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, will promote the event free of charge when the team faces Kettering Town on Saturday.

The drive has been organised to encourage more people to register as stem cell donors, as part of a campaign to help 16-year-old Leo from Bromsgrove who has been diagnosed with leukaemia.

For patients with blood cancer, like Leo, a stem cell transplant from a matching donor can be the only opportunity for recovery.

Max Banner, media officer at the club, said: "As a club we need to be seen to be doing everything we can for the community.

"You see something like this and you think it's the least we could do with the exposure and reach we have as a club."

He added: "Who knows, we could make all the difference."

Leo has been diagnosed with leukaemia and is now in urgent need of a stem cell donor

Leo's family has been working with blood cancer charity DKMS to search for a stem cell donor.

The donor drive event has been organised for 23 November at St Godwald's church hall in Bromsgrove.

Those interested can attend the venue from 13:00 until 18:00 GMT.

Swabs will be taken so the charity can find out if attendees are a match for Leo, or another patient in urgent need of a stem cell transplant.

'Good days and bad days'

Leo's dad Warren said his son had been in hospital for the past eight weeks.

"He's doing okay, he has his good days and his bad days," he said.

"Generally, on the whole he's quite chipper about things and he's quite talkative.

"I'm up there every day and his mum's up there pretty much 24/7. I go up on the nights and spend all weekend with him."

Warren, who has recently joined the stem cell donor register, said it was "really easy to do".

"I did mine a few weeks ago and it takes literally six minutes. It's three swabs, one around your left cheek, one around your right cheek and one around the inside of your lips," he said.

"It gets sent off and it's as simple as that."