Daniel De Gale
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Daniel De Gale (b. 14 March 1987) inspired a major push to promote awareness of leukaemia in the United Kingdom's black community when, as a child, his mother and step-father launched a search for suitable bone marrow donors and a charity.
De Gale, raised in the London Borough of Croydon, was diagnosed with Leukaemia in 1993 at the age of six. Daniel was put on a 2 year course of chemotherapy which he completed in March 1995. But after being in remission for just 9 months, he relapsed in December 1995, when a routine blood test revealed leukaemia cells again. With no assurance that a second course of chemotherapy would be successful his mother, Beverley De Gale, sought a bone marrow transplant for Daniel.
With only 550 African, African Caribbean, and people of mixed parentage on the UK register, this made Daniel’s chances of finding a match within the UK as little as 1 in 250,000. Beverley and her partner, Orin Lewis, then set up the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust to raise awareness, and to support and assist Black and Mixed Parentage people suffering with Leukaemia and all other blood related cancers. The charity also became involved with recruiting potential donors from many influential organisations such as the Fire Brigade, the Black Police Association, colleges and universities.
De Gale was given a second course of chemotherapy but in September 1998 he suffered a second relapse. Subsequent publicity encourarage various celebrities to help encourage possible donors to come forward. Celebrities such as John Barnes, Colin Salmon, the Duchess of York, Ian Wright and John Fashanu offered their support and subsequently became patrons of the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust.
In 1999 after six years of treatment a matching donor was found, Doreene Carney in Detroit, Michigan, USA [1]. This has lead to De Gale being able to go on to living a 'normal' life preparing himself for his GCSE school exams at Archbishop Tenison's C of E High School.
Daniel was one of the first black persons in the UK to receive a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. Because of this fact many sufferers and their families are now coming forward as donors and receiving support from the ACLT.
