“We need a donor”: Parents' desperate plea to save young daughter
The heartbroken parents of five-year-old Addison Kemp have made a desperate plea to save their young daughter.
Addison suffers from a rare health condition called severe Aplastic anaemia, which means that her body’s bone marrow does not produce enough new blood cells to carry out vital tasks like carry oxygen, control infections or heal after an injury.
This means that even a simple nosebleed can be catastrophic for the young girl, as she's forced to spend days in hospital getting blood transfusions to stay alive.
Her parents Bianca and Daniel have spoken about her condition in an interview with A Current Affair and explained how without a bone-marrow transplant, the condition could mean death for their young daughter.
“She wouldn’t live,” Ms Kemp said.
“We need a donor.”
The couple first found out about their daughter's condition after she returned home from school with bruises all over her body.
Addison was taken to the doctor for a blood test, and they found out about the devastating condition a day later and were told to immediately take her to Queensland Children’s Hospital.
“I was gutted, I was devastated. Getting a phone call from the doctor saying you need to rush your little girl to the hospital. That wasn’t a phone call that I wanted,” Mr Kemp said.
Addison now has to stay in hospital until she can be matched with a donor.
Her little sister Crimson, misses her every day that they are apart.
“She gets a bit upset every day that they are not home,” Mr Kemp said.
The family said that their bone-marrow did not match up with Addison, and no registered Australian donors had matched up with her either.
However, not all hope is lost as any regular Australian could help save a life.
Lisa Smith, from bone marrow donation charity Strength to Give, said that the donation process is similar to donating blood which involves a short course of injections before the operation.
“The vast majority of time, it is you sitting in a chair, having your blood filtered, while you are watching Netflix," Smith said.
Ms Kemp begged Australians to sign up as donors.
“I really want to put the message out there that if you can, do,” she said.
“You could be saving a life, that’s the biggest thing you could do in the world.”
Image: A Current Affair