Transplant girl marks birthday

Baby Lauren Edwards was set mark a very special landmark today - by celebrating her first birthday with family and friends in Telford.

Lauren, who has a rare illness, underwent a vital bone-marrow transplant operation earlier this year, which doctors now fear may not have worked. But the little girl was due to spend her big day at home in Ketley with lots of presents and a cake made by her mum Angela.

Lauren was diagnosed with leukocyte adhesion deficiency, which means she cannot fight infections, when she was just 18 days old.

The illness affects only 300 people across the world and a series of clinics were held in Shropshire to try to find a bone marrow match for her.

A donor was eventually found in America and Lauren spent three months at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London preparing for, undergoing and recovering from her transplant.

Her father, Lee, said she had remained her usual happy self, despite facing the possibility of having to undergo a second transplant.

“In herself she’s really happy,” he said. “She’s doing really well. There’s still no change with the engraftment percentage of her original cells.

“The plan is to stay on the drugs she’s on for another month or so in the hope something takes and it starts to grow. She’s doing really well at the moment.

“In herself she’s fantastic, she’s coming on really well, she’s developing as any other 12-month-old baby would. She’s started to try and walk and babble words,” he added.

“We are going to have a quiet do at home with a few close family members round and if the weather is nice, we will take her out somewhere.

“She’s got plenty of presents from various people, I’m sure she’s going to have a great day.

“She’s going to have a cake, even if she can just squash her hands into it and spit her candle out.

“As long as we’ve got a picture of her with her first birthday cake, that’s fine - I can help her eat it.”

By Deborah Collins