Olcan's Story

On August 25th 2021 after embarking on a new adventure where our whole family had just relocated to Northern Ireland just 3 weeks prior.

Olcán had come up with lots of bruises and after a blood test was rushed to hospital that same day with suspected leukaemia.

Olcán underwent a bone marrow biopsy and the results came back inconclusive. After many test over the coming weeks he was diagnosed with a very rare disease called aplastic anaemia which is complete bone marrow failure. The only cure is a bone marrow transplant.

Sadly there was no match for Olcán so we did a national campaign to see if we could raise awareness and find him a match. After 3 months of searching and Olcán being completely transfusion dependant, some weeks requiring 4-5 transfusions. We finally found his superhero!

Olcán had his transplant March 31st 2022 a date that we will be forever grateful to a complete stranger. Olcán had a very bumpy road and lots of complications that we could have done without. But we are delighted to say he suceeded against all odds and rang the bell on the 1st of May 2022.

He is back in school full time now and thriving. His resilience is astounding he hasn’t missed a beat and the school and his friends are absolutely thrilled to have him back.

We were so excited to get an opportunity to stay at bens den as we have had so many missed moments as a family. Being diagnosed at the tail end of covid we have never taken a family trip with all 4 of us.

We are so grateful and can’t wait. Thank you so much!