Charity climb for Killyleagh man

Charity climb for Killyleagh man

21 July 2021

A YOUNG Killyleagh man is recovering in hospital in England after receiving a stem cell transplant. 

Curtis Croskery was born with the rare blood condition agammaglobulinemia, which left him with a lifelong immunity deficiency.

The 22 year-old received stem cells from a donor in Germany which was made possible by the work of the Anthony Nolan charity.

It will be some weeks before Curtis and his family know if the transplant has been successful.

He is not due to leave Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne until October at the earliest.

His cousin, Stevie Shields, will climb Slieve Donard on Saturday to raise money for the charity and to support Curtis’ parents, Lorraine and David, as they stay with their son in England.

Mr Shields has already nearly £1,200 pledged but hopes to raise £1,500 in total.

Mrs Croskery said her nephew Stevie, also from Killyleagh, had “a heart of gold” for undertaking his charity climb.

“Stevie and Curtis are really close as cousins, we are all very close as a family. 

“I could never thank people enough for all their support and particularly Steven. He has a heart of gold.”

Curtis and his parents have been in Newcastle upon Tyne since June 23, even though the actual stem cell graft took place on July 1.

Mrs Croskery explained: “Curtis was admitted on June 23 for a week of conditioning which is basically chemotherapy every day until the day before his transplant. 

“It was administered through a central line, through his heart. It may only have taken about 45 minutes to do but it’s a big operation.

“Curtis is holding his own, with some better days than others but it’s just a waiting game as we have to wait and see if the stem cell graft takes.”

During a stem cell transplant, the patient’s blood stem cells are replaced with new, healthy stem cells from a suitable donor. 

After a period of time they should attach to the patient’s bone marrow (called engraftment) and start to make new blood cells. 

There has been ups and downs for the family over the last several years as Curtis waited for the right donor to come along for the operation to take place at the national centre for stem cell grafts, The Freeman Hospital. 

“The transplant was cancelled a few times due to the pandemic and then in April, it was cancelled again as the donor was not available until June,” said Mrs Croskery.

“We don’t know anything more about the donor other than he is 30 years old and from Germany. We will have to wait a few years before we will be told anymore about him.

“But this would not have been possible without the Anthony Nolan charity and their campaign to encourage people to donate their stem cells. It’s an international charity which means that a patient could get helped from someone across the world.”

Curtis, who is a former art and design student at SERC in Downpatrick, has been helped by strangers all of his life due to his rare condition.

Mrs Curtis said: “When Curtis was born he was diagnosed with agammaglobulinemia. It’s a very rare condition. In Northern Ireland, there are about 15 cases, most of them being from my family.

“Women carry it and pass it on to their male children. My sister wasn’t a carrier but I was. My older son Jonathan does not have it, but Curtis does.

“When he was a baby, it was much easier as I was in sole control of where he went and what he did.

“If there were colds and flus about, we just didn’t take him out. He only went to nursery school two days a week before going to Killyleagh Primary School where they were absolutely brilliant with him, as was Blackwater College where he also attended.”

He had agammaglobulin treatment from eight weeks old every week, which was basically donated blood plasma. 

“I never wrapped Curtis in cotton wool when he was growing up as I purposefully tried not to do that as he had to live as normal a life as possible,” said Mrs Croskery.

“He was not physically disabled but inside in his body, he was. If there was anything like measles or mumps going around the school — which could have killed Curtis — the teachers told me and I just kept him at home.

“So in the end, Curtis missed a lot of time at school over the years. Trying to get the Education Board to listen to me was horrendous. He was in P6 before he got any help.”

Curtis’ condition was made very more vulnerable as he caught norovirus, the vomiting bug, at the age of five and has been living with it for the last 17 years.

He has been fed nutrients overnight through a drip since the age of 12 as his body was not able to absorb the goodness out of food in the normal way. 

The Covid-19 pandemic — like so many other people — rendered Curtis virtually housebound since February last year.

“Other than to go to Killyleagh or to Downpatrick with me for a run out, he has not been out of the house,” said Mrs Croskery.

Curtis is a popular local singer with a wide circle of friends who hopes to become a paramedic one day. 

Mr Croskery and her husband have been staying in an apartment during Curtis’s hospitalisation, spending £100 a week in taxi fares to the hospital alone because their son is in protective isolation as he recovers; the threat of Covid-19 or any other virus is even more critical now to avoid. 

“Curtis Facetimes me every Monday and then we go to the hospital and spend from 11am to 7pm with him every day, of course having to be gowned up and wearing masks and gloves,” said Mrs Croskery.

“Because we are from Northern Ireland, the medical team has been absolutely fantastic to us. I couldn’t fault them at all. We have been very lucky.”

Mrs Croskery and her wider family are all cheering on her nephew and his challenge. 

The father-of-three has never climbed Slieve Donard before but will be joined by some of his friends on Saturday. 

“This is something small that I can do to help Curtis and the family, raise more awareness of the need for stem cell donors and the work of the Anthony Nolan charity and to give it some much needed funds to help other people like Curtis,” said Mr Shields.

To find out how to become a donor visit www.anthonynolan.org and to donate to the fundraiser, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/curtis-croskerys-recovery.