Bone marrow boy becomes donor to save his brother

A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy whose life was saved by a bone marrow transplant as a baby has now saved the life of his new-born brother after becoming a donor.

Owen Vincent, treated for severe immuno-deficiency disease with bone marrow from an anonymous baby, donated his own marrow at Great Ormond Street hospital this year.

Doctors now think the donated marrow has saved the life of his three-month-old brother Niall, who they believe has been cured of the same condition. It is thought to be first time a child so young has become a donor for one of his siblings. For the first 18 months of his life Owen, from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, was forced to live in a sterile "bubble" to protect him from infection. The syndrome destroys the immune system and makes the sufferer critically vulnerable to all germs. The only cure was to find a bone marrow donor with matching tissues. No member of Owen's family was a perfect match and an unrelated and slightly imperfect donor had to be used. In order to mould the new marrow, Owen had to endure months of painful chemotherapy and further illness but eventually recovered. Then his mother Ann gave birth to Niall, who was discovered to be suffering from the same condition. Tests on Owen revealed he had identical bone marrow. About six teaspoonfuls of bone marrow had to be taken from Owen for the operation, carried out by specialist surgeons at Great Ormond Street. Today, two months on, it was revealed that Niall is now cured. The boys' ecstatic mother said: "Owen is a normal little boy now and Niall is getting there." Dr Alison Jones, consultant immunologist at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: "When relations have identical tissues it is possible to transplant bone marrow without following it up with chemotherapy. "In theory the tolerised bone marrow in Owen would work for Niall and save him from painful treatment. "We didn't know it would be as plain sailing as it has been, but it means it could be done again." The operation will be featured in tonight's QED on BBC1 at 9.30pm.

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