Page 35 - Federation magazine: October / November 2016

Parents in bone marrow plea
as Mia battles cancer again
Chris Phipps and Mia.
ALeicestershire Police officer is asking
colleagues across the country to
consider becoming bone marrow
donors after his young daughter was
diagnosed with cancer for the second time.
Like thousands of parents across the
country, PC Chris Phipps and his partner
Mandy were expecting to spend the summer
holidays hunting for school uniform and
preparing their daughter for her first day at puncture to be carried out and that
school.
Little Mia, who turns five at the end of
September, had enjoyed her induction days
at her Leicester primary school and was
looking forward to going to ‘big school’. But possibility but gruelling chemotherapy and
before that, the young family were planning
their first holiday in Tenerife.
Sadly, however, Mia will not be starting
school with her young friends and the family
have had to cancel the holiday since the
cancer Mia first battled when she was just a
toddler has returned.
“Mia was diagnosed with leukaemia
when she was 21-months-old and, after two
and a half years of treatment, including
www.westmidspolfed.com
chemotherapy, was given the all-clear in
December last year,” says Chris (29), who
joined Leicestershire Police as a PC in 2012 others facing similar illnesses.
after three years as a PCSO.
“We enjoyed seven months of Mia being
well when she picked up chickenpox and
then, after she complained of headaches,
we were referred to the Leicester Royal
Infirmary where she was originally treated.
Blood tests came back OK as did a CT scan
but Mia’s consultant asked for a lumbar
revealed cancer in her spinal fluid.”
The family are now waiting for doctors
to confirm the best approach to treatment
with a bone marrow transplant being one
radiotherapy are almost certainly going to
be part of the plan of attack. When Mia was
first told she was ill once more, her main
concern was that she was going to lose her
hair again.
Chris and his partner Mandy are now
urgently appealing for people to sign up to
the Anthony Nolan Trust and consider being
federation October/November 2016 35
bone marrow donors in the hope that even if
they are not a match for Mia they can help
“We know that the search is already on
to find a suitable donor for Mia but we
would really like to encourage more people
to come forward and sign up to the donor
register. We want to raise awareness of the
need for bone marrow donors and also
stress how easy it is to help someone like
Mia,” says Chris, “When I joined, I registered
with the trust and they posted me a pack. All
I had to do was spit in the container they
sent and return it to them.”
The Anthony Nolan Trust (anthonynolan.
org) looks for donors aged 18 to 30 and if
you’re already a blood donor, or willing and
eligible to give blood, you may be able to join
the British Bone Marrow Registry, run by
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), by
giving an extra sample at your next
appointment. NHSBT accepts men aged 17
to 40, as well as women aged 17 to 40 from
mixed or minority ethnic backgrounds.
DKMS UK registers people aged 17 to 55.
You can sign up online or at a recruitment
event.
All of Mia’s immediate family have
already given samples but so far a match has
not been found. When a suitable donor is
found, the family are going to have to travel
to Sheffield where the transplant will be
carried out.
Chris and Mandy have also launched a
charity in their daughter’s name – Mia Moo’s
Foundation – and want to raise at least
£40,000 to pay for a static caravan on the
East Coast that could be used by families in
similar circumstances to their own.
“This could be a real lifeline for a family
and give them invaluable respite between
hospital visits and treatments,” says Chris.
Leicestershire Police Federation
chairman Tiff Lynch has pledged to help the
family and is urging other Federation
members to sign up to the donor register.
“I was really moved by Mia’s story,” says
Tiff, “As a mother myself, I can imagine what
Chris and Mandy are going through. The
family were looking forward to their first
holiday abroad this year and planning for
the future doing all the things that Mia had
not been able to do while battling this
disease first time around so it seems
particularly tough that instead they are
embarking on a second bout of treatments.”
If you want to help with the Mia Moo’s
Foundation fund-raising or make a donation,
please contact the Federation office by
emailing tlynch@lpf.polfed.org