‘Save our son’
By Sinead McCavana
11 June 2006
The beautiful baby boy has just WEEKS to live - unless YOU can help raise £100,000 for a life-saving operation.
Leukaemia sufferer James Hynes’ heartbroken parents last night appealed to you - our readers - to help save their 13-month-old son’s life.
Said dad James: “A hospital in Germany can do the bone-marrow operation James needs - but first we need to find £100,000.”
Mum Cathy added: “We’re already selling our home - we’ll do anything. But, with James, every day counts.
“That’s why we desperately need your readers’ help.”
Little James Hynes has just WEEKS to live - unless he receives a life-saving operation.
For the cute toddler - he only celebrated his first birthday last month - is battling leukaemia.
Now James’ distraught mum and dad, Cathy and James snr, desperately need to raise £100,000 for a life-saving bone-marrow transplant at a top German hospital.
The Co Antrim couple have already put their house on the market.
But the sale will come too late for baby James - so they’re asking for YOUR help this morning.
Said James snr: “The German doctor says there is between a 20pc and 30pc chance that the operation will be successful.
“But at least that’s some hope - we just have to try.”
Added the dad-of-two: “The doctors here have told us a transplant operation could kill James.
“But what’s the alternative? Just leave him to die and try nothing?”
Consultants treating James at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children told the heartbroken couple last week that there was very little else they could do for James.
Said mum Cathy (31): “No hospital in the UK will consider carrying out a bone-marrow transplant, because James is not in remission.
“We were told last Tuesday to take James home and enjoy what time we had left with him.
“We think he might only have a matter of weeks to live.
“But we will not give up - we have to keep fighting for him.”
Cathy found a German surgeon on the internet who was expert in transplant operations on children with leukaemia.
She added: “Professor Rupert Handgretinger would use bone-marrow from either myself or James’ dad and transplant it into James.
“We spoke to him and he can do the operation now. But we need €150,000 euro (£103,000) - in America, it would be $$650,000 (£352,000).
“We have asked the Royal to refer us to this hospital in Germany, but our consultant says he doesn’t hold out much hope of that happening.
“We are willing to sell the house that we spent years building - we will do anything.
“But we won’t get a buyer quickly enough - with James, every day counts.
“So we’re asking the people of Northern Ireland to help us to save our little angel’s life.”
James, who has an older brother, Michael, has spent most of his short life in hospital.
For weeks, he was in excruciating pain as his bones swelled and doctors struggled to diagnose his illness.
They discovered - to his parents’ horror - that it was acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) - rare in children, but more common in adults.
Said Cathy: “James was given only a 30pc chance of survival. He has received six blocks of chemotherapy and, for a time, was in remission. But, sadly, the cancer came back again at Easter.
“James has battled for a year now - he deserves a chance to live.”
–If you wish to make a donation to The James Appeal, please contact Sunday Life’s Appeal Hotline (028) 9026 4311 or email smccavana@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
