‘Healthy’ boy, nine, diagnosed with rare blood condition after tiredness and bruises now faces bone marrow transplant

A “healthy” boy suffering from tiredness and bruises has been diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening blood condition and now faces a bone marrow transplant and six weeks of isolation.

Joey Stowell, nine, from Cornwall, was a normal, “happy” boy according to his father, Brandon Stowell, 30, when he started to become lethargic and pale and was “covered in bruises” in July this year.

The father-of-three said his son was taken to a doctor, who was concerned following an initial check-up, and who sent the family on to their local hospital for blood tests – where it was discovered Joey had extremely low haemoglobin, white blood cell and platelet counts.

After being transferred to the Bristol Children’s Hospital, it was found Joey has aplastic anaemia, a rare and serious condition also known as bone marrow failure, which affects around 30 to 40 children each year, according to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) – and he now urgently requires a bone marrow transplant.

Brandon has since set up a GoFundMe page to help the family cope with everyday expenses, saying it will relieve them of the “big pressure” of worrying about whether they can “afford to eat” or “afford to give Joey a little treat”.

“It’s hit home hard and all you want to do is take it away, you want to be able to have what they’ve got and just go through it yourself,” Brandon, a self-employed hairdresser, told PA Real Life.

Brandon said Joey started to present with some worrying symptoms in July this year.

“Joey was a normal, healthy boy but he became very lethargic, he wasn’t himself, he was very pale,” he said.

“He was also covered in bruises, which were coming up on random places on his body but we put it down to him being a young boy because you know what they’re like, jumping off the sofa and things.

Brandon said they had already booked a blood test for Joey but they visited their GP again to speed up the process.

He said their doctor was concerned following an initial observation and sent the family to their local hospital for further tests.

“When we received the blood test back, his haemoglobin count was something around 15, which is severely low,” Brandon said.

It was also found Joey’s white blood cell and platelet counts were low – the latter of which had caused the bruising on his body – and he underwent a blood transfusion.

“It raised the question as to what was going on as he wasn’t producing his own blood properly,” Brandon said.

“He was presenting quite strong symptoms for leukaemia but we found out through the blood tests and through a bone marrow aspiration, where they take a small sample of your bone marrow, he was pre-diagnosed with aplastic anaemia,” Brandon said.

According to GOSH, aplastic anaemia, or bone marrow failure, is a rare disease and about 30 to 40 children are diagnosed with it each year.

The condition affects the blood where the bone marrow and stem cells do not produce enough blood cells.

Joey was discharged from Bristol Children’s Hospital and sent back to his local hospital in Cornwall.

Following a blood test, it was found Joey’s two sisters were not a match for the transplant, meaning the family had to wait for an external donor to become available.

“They think at one point Joey might have had an infection of a virus or bacteria which might have been inside his bone marrow and which would have triggered this response in his body,” Brandon said.

Joey will soon undergo a course of chemotherapy, Brandon said, before healthy bone marrow can be inserted during a transplant operation which is scheduled for the end of November at a hospital in London.

He will also need to be medically isolated in hospital for six weeks to protect him from infection as “he will have no immunity left after the chemotherapy”.

He added the last five months have “hit us hard”.

“It was the shock factor as we didn’t realise something like that became so serious so fast,” he said.

“It’s very upsetting, I feel anxious not knowing what’s going to happen day to day.”

“He’s a very happy-go-lucky boy, he’s normally bouncing, full of energy,” he said.

“He’s quite aware he is very unwell and he deals with it really, really fantastically.”

He said: “It will just help us as a family to take that big pressure off of us having to worry about, ‘can we afford to eat tonight’ or ‘can we afford to give Joey a little treat’.

“Thank you for supporting my son and my family, words can’t describe how much love, support and appreciation I feel.”

To find out more, visit the fundraising page for Joey here: gofundme.com/f/joey-and-his-octopus.