RNCM Hosts Swab For Sykes

On Thursday 23rd March, Kevin Holdgate tells us that he spent the day at the Royal Northern College of Music on behalf of the Swab for Sykes campaign.

A total of 93 young musicians gave swab samples in what Kevin describes as a fantastic atmosphere of love and determination to find what he describes as ‘the Golden Ticket’.

Kevin told A4B: ‘This is very much a numbers game. The more people that are tested the more chance there is of finding a match for not only Stephen, but literally thousands of others in the same situation as him. I was genuinely humbled by the reaction of the young people that came to see us at the RNCM, many of them had concerts to perform at or lectures to attend and yet, they made sure that they took time out to come along and see us.

The campaign is set to continue for as long it takes and I have received numerous suggestions as to where we could go next; too many for me to be involved with directly but as was shown with the ‘Swab for Sykes’ teams in Swansea, Stevenage, Huddersfield and Torquay, there are many other people who will take up the baton and run with it on behalf of Stephen.’

A fund raising campaign to enable the purchase of potentially life saving drugs has now been launched at www.gofundme.com. This has already raised almost £30,000, but more is needed. The drugs are in excess of £6500 per month, this puts them well above the NHS funding limit.

Kevin continued: ‘The cancer that Stephen has is extremely serious, and extremely aggressive. Without the drug treatment, it is possible that he may not be well enough to receive a stem cell transplant when we find a suitable donor. The cost of the drug treatment is massive and he needs our help as a brass family to survive.’