'Every day that passes is a huge success' for the parents of a little boy who has received a life-saving stem cell transplant.

Zakk Galvin battled leukaemia for 18 months, but after his chemotherapy treatment stopped being effective, his parents were forced to appeal for a stem cell donor.

He has been offered a new lease of life after the transplant has gone ahead.

The six-year-old from Winterton is currently in a fragile condition recovering from the transplant in hospital.

It took months of searching to find a matching donor for Zakk odds that his parents compared to one in a million.

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Zakk has been staying in Sheffield Childrens Hospital since the process began on Boxing Day. It could be months until he can return home, but his parents are thankful for each day.

Dad Craig said: The first week was spent preparing Zakk to receive the cord blood transplant which involved a significant amount of chemotherapy and total body irradiation therapy.

The purpose of this was to totally eliminate any remaining cancer from his body, as well as dampen his body's natural instinct to fight anything invading.

This made Zakk very poorly, and indeed we had some of our hardest days and nights since his journey began in March 2019.

Along with this was the fragility that comes with such treatment, as his immune system and own body defences must be completely overcome in order for the grafted stem cells to not be rejected.

Zakk, who lives in Winterton, has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare form in which the bone marrow produces faulty white blood cells.

On January 4, he received the healthy stem cells which can take over.

Bone marrow is the tissue inside of bones.

It's a 'factory' which it essential to the human body, as it produces all the required blood cells.

However, it can stop working properly due to diseases like leukemia.

In these cases, the best hope is a transplant from someone with healthy bone marrow.

The actual transplant itself went ahead relatively anti-climactically, Craig said.

You would think that this monumental occasion would involve a huge theatre surgery or some fantastical machine, when in actual fact it is an IV infusion over within about 45 minutes.

But God is in the detail because what was being infused was the stem cells which would hopefully implant and give Zakk new life.

The young boy is now undergoing a vigorous schedule of daily tests and scans to monitor his health.

Due to his fragile condition, he isnt able to see his mum Elizabeth or sisters Annabelle and Eshter, who are eagerly waiting for his return home.

He is very tired, very irritable and suffering from any number of unpleasant symptoms, but we pray that through this trial a miracle is happening just waiting to break through, Craig said.

We know, and most importantly he knows, that it will be a rollercoaster ride, that tonight maybe totally different from today, tomorrow a stark contrast to yesterday.

"But still we look to the day when he will be able to leave hospital and come home to see his sisters, mother and cats.

He's too fragile to be able to see them until that time. We don't know at this time when that will be, his birthday is in late March - it would be wonderful for him to have it at home!

As his transplant consultant has said, Every day that passes is a huge success so we must thank the Lord for every day.

To help other people in urgent need of a donor, you can join the British Bone Marrow Registry or register with the DKMS .

Excerpt from:
Every day is a success for little boy with leukaemia after life-saving transplant - Grimsby Live