Urgent appeal to help Apollo apprentice
Apollo Motor Group director Bradley Eyles and Volvo’s body and paint development manager Steve Plunkett are lending their support to 19-year-old Luke Hope, an apprentice parts advisor at the Apollo Motor Group Swindon site, who needs a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed with cancer for the second time in February.
He was diagnosed with leukaemia a week before his 18th birthday and after six months of intensive chemotherapy went into remission. However, he relapsed in February this year, with an Optical Neuropathy and lost the sight in his right eye.
He is now desperately seeking a “genetic twin” on the Blood Stem Cell register.
Plunkett and Eyles, Hope’s boss, are now throwing their weight behind the apprentice’s quest to find a suitable bone marrow donor and in addition trying and raise some much-needed funds for the DKMS charity.
Plunkett said: “Luke is such a lovely young man and at such a young age, he deserves this chance of having a bone marrow transplant, but he needs a donor and the sooner one is found the better. I think that the fact that Luke works in the body repair industry, gives our sector a great opportunity to demonstrate a real togetherness in such challenging times.
“I would like to make a personal appeal to anyone one that is aged between 17 and 55 to just click the link and register themselves to get themselves registered. It doesn’t take long to do, it is a very simple process.”
He added: “In the early 2000s I was a donor for a bone marrow transplant myself to a complete stranger and it was one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done, having the opportunity to give someone hope and health was too much of a temptation for me at the time. I have never regretted doing that one bit.
“To think that you can save someone’s life by doing such a good deed I hope will also have the same positive effect on the many thousands of people that we have working across the body repair industry.”
