Please Help Save My Uncle

Dear COLlive readers,

My name is Henech Bowick, a member of Anash in Detroit. My uncle, Alan Tomlinson in Manchester, UK, is seriously ill and in need of a bone marrow transplant.

We don’t need donations, we need a match.

His best chances of finding a match come from within the Jewish community. Especially healthy men under 40, but anyone could potentially be a match.

His daughter Naomi has started a worldwide campaign to ask as many Jews as possible to register to become a donor. To be tested as a possible match is as simple as a cheek swab. It’s quick, painless and could save a life.

Obviously there are many people who are in need of this life saving treatment, so even if you are not a match for my uncle, you may be for someone else and have the opportunity to do one of the greatest Mitzvahs of saving a life.

If you have not already registered to become a bone marrow donor, please email me at savemyuncle@gmail.com with your location and I will send you information about how you can join a registry in your area. If you are already registered, please encourage your family, friends and neighbors to do the same.

I also ask for everyone to please say Kapitel 56 for Yitzchok ben Chana.

Below is an article about my uncle that was printed in the Manchester Jewish Telegraph this past Friday:

Unless a Manchester father-of-three can find a stem cell match to allow him to undergo a lifesaving transplant, he will die.

Naomi Tomlinson, a medical student, is urging the community to join the drive to find a match for her father Alan Tomlinson, 55, who recently developed lymphoma — cancer of the immune system — for the second time in two years. After he contracted the lymphoma for the first time, a match was found and Alan underwent a stem cell transplant in March last year.

However, earlier this year the lymphoma returned and a worldwide hunt is on for another match.

Naomi said: “During the last couple of years we’ve had a lot of support from friends, which has been a big help. When he has been well enough we’ve made the most of those times.”

“We’ve tried to carry on with things as much as we can. After the transplant we thought it was going to give us a lot longer than it has done.”

In light of the recurrent lymphoma, Naomi, 23, decided to organize a worldwide search where people can have their saliva tested to find out if they are a match for her father.

Naomi said “Only a couple of years ago you would have had to take a blood test with needles. but now it is just a case of providing saliva — it is easy to do. I’m hoping it will be a successful event. At least if you’re not a match, the result will mean more people on the register.”

The event is being organized in conjunction with the Anthony Nolan Trust – one of the UK’s major bone marrow registers.

Naomi, who has two younger brothers — Mark, 20, and Adam, 17 — said that as an active and sporty family “we have not been able to do bike trips that we normally do”. But her father is “strong and practical about things”.

Mr. Tomlinson, married to Sharon, 52, said that the drive to create awareness and have more people on the donor register can only be a positive step.

He told the Jewish Telegraph: “The likelihood of finding a donor is small but focuses people on the fact that we need to get more signed up. Whether it helps me is something to be seen, but it makes people feel they can make a positive change in creating awareness. And people feel helpful about making a positive contribution to others in this situation.”

Mr. Tomlinson has undergone an arduous two years. He was “getting back into decent health” when the cancer reappeared. “But hopefully, replacing stem cells will give me the immunity of the donor,” he said. However, if no donor is found “then it is a serious situation for me”, he explained.

Despite the severity, Mr. Tomlinson is battling on.

He said: “It has changed my life completely. My energy is significantly depleted. “Ordinarily, I would be playing a lot of golf or going hiking or cycling — I’m a pretty active person. “But I’m trying to keep myself busy by doing lots of paperwork. I’m out and about and not confined to the house. “Things I would not normally think about I can’t do because I’m wiped out.”

The son of Anita Tomlinson and the late Leslie Tomlinson, he said he was proud of his daughter Naomi for organizing the event.

Mr. Tomlinson, an accountant, said: “What Naomi is doing fulfils a need for many people throughout the world and to donate, or to offer to donate, is a mitzvah that as many people as possible should fulfill.”