Toddler Steps In To Save His Teenaged Brother's Life

Toddler Steps In To Save His Teenaged Brother's Life

A 13-year old boy with a life-threatening condition has had his hopes of survival raised - by his three-year old brother.

Teenager Shane Owen Firth has a rare but serious condition called aplastic anaemia. He was diagnosed with the illness after his parents noticed bruising on his skin and took him to the doctor.

His condition means his bone marrow doesn't produce enough new cells.

It has completely affected his life, transforming him from a football-mad teenager to a child with little energy who is housebound.

Shane's family were desperate to find suitable marrow donors, and his three siblings were tested. Three-year-old Jaydon was identified as a suitable match, and next month he will undergo a procedure so that he can donate his bone marrow to his brother.

Shane, from Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, will go into an isolation unit at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool where chemotherapy will kill off his bone marrow cells. Three-year old Jaydon will then go to the hospital to have surgery to extract bone marrow, which will then be donated to his brother.

The boys' grandmother, Shirley Owen, told the Daily Mail: 'When we needed a match for the bone marrow, his brother, Justin, who was eight, was desperate to help his brother, but his match was not right.

'Jaydon's match was, and he says he is helping make a new Shane. He is happy to be helping his big brother.'

Close