I had a ‘saviour sibling’ to cure my desperately ill son – but now I’ve found out my newborn daughter can’t save his life
Donna Zammit’s first, tearful words to her husband Thomas after their baby daughter was born six weeks ago were: “I did this for Jamie.”
Strange words, but then baby Donatella was conceived with the primary intention of her becoming a “saviour sibling” to her nine-year-old brother Jamie, who suffers from the rare genetic blood disorder Fanconi anaemia.
Their unbridled optimism that Donatella might provide their son with a bone marrow transplant and in doing so save his life has been cruelly short-lived.
Two weeks ago the Zammits received the devastating phone call from Great Ormond Street hospital in London to say that tests on Donatella’s umbilical cord blood had revealed she was not a perfect tissue match for her brother.
