Good Causes
Alesha Dixon - ambassador for the Help A London Child charity
Help a London child have asked Alesha to become an official ambassador for the charity. Alesha has been a great supporter, previously supporting the Help a London Child Appeal, launching and taking part in the Bupa Great Capital Run and presenting at the Capital Awards.
95.8 Capital FM’s Help a London child supports disadvantaged children and young people living in the Capital, so the news of Alesha being an ambassador is both heart-warming and inspirational as Alesha is always happy to support a worthy course, here’s what Alesha had to say:
“I am very honoured that Help a London Child have asked me to be an ambassador and I have accepted. I have supported the charity for some time now and it makes sense to make my involvement more official. I am looking forward to continuing my support and I have already volunteered to run the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon to help raise funds for the charity!”
Help a London Child Manager Kate Crabtree said:
“This is fantastic news for Help a London Child and we are absolutely delighted. Alesha’s thoughtfulness and compassion make her the perfect ambassador and we look forward to her continued invaluable support.”
To learn more about the charity please visit www.capitalfm.com/helpalondonchild
Alesha Dixon is proud to be a patron of the The African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) and would like you share the good work they do with you.
The ACLT offers hope of a healthy future to people with life-threatening blood related cancers. We run registration clinics across the UK, in order to trace potential donors who may have the matching bone marrow type that could save the life of sufferers with leukaemia or other blood disorders. Surprisingly, donating bone marrow to another person is a simple procedure.
Daniel De-Gale is our inspiration
The ACLT was established in June 1996 by Beverley De-Gale and Orin Lewis, parents of Daniel De-Gale. Daniel had been suffering from leukaemia for three years and a bone marrow transplant was his only hope of survival. However, bone marrow contains racially specific characteristics and there were only 550 black or mixed race people on the UK bone marrow registers. This limited Daniel to a one in 250,000 chance of finding a compatible donor.
Undeterred, Beverley and Orin decided to find a match themselves and the fledgling African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust was born. With their own resources and the support of well-wishers, the ACLT recruited thousands of potential donors and generated masses of publicity. Eventually, they found a matching unrelated donor and on 16th June 1999, 12-year-old Daniel received a bone marrow transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Daniel went on to attend university and pursue a normal life. However, due to complications with his health that led to multiple organ failure, he died on the 8th October 2008 surrounded by his family. He was 21 years of age.
The fight goes on
Today, ACLT continues to drive forward, recently passing the milestone of 25,000 donors and many lives saved. Unfortunately, 7,000 sufferers still require life-saving bone marrow transplants at any one time.
Raising funds will allow the ACLT to continue to raise awareness and host registration drives throughout the UK and abroad, giving greater hope to leukaemia and bone marrow cancer sufferers of all racial backgrounds.
Help us to save more lives
Our ultimate aim is to raise the funds required to start an independent ACLT Bone Marrow Register. This will allow us to undertake worldwide donor searches and testing of potential bone marrow donors in our own testing & research laboratories.
There are many sufferers and their families fighting with tremendous courage and strength. Some die while waiting for a match; others know that their time is limited. Please donate money or join the register today, to ensure that their battle is not in vain.
To find out more and register to donate please visit