My brother, Neil
Neil was kind, caring and generous; he was a people person who would go out of his way to help people. He had an excellent sense of humour; he could make people laugh, and his enthusiastic spirit was contagious. He fought until the very end, it was a tough 15 months enduring intensive chemo cycles, relapse, infections, and long hospital stays but he still maintained his positive, happy-go lucky attitude throughout.
Neil was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) in April 2025 at the age of 37. He started to get symptoms from January 2025, where he had a blood test with GP in March 2025 which pathology results showed he had significantly low platelet and white blood cell counts - he was immediately rushed to hospital.
Neil's transplant
He had two rounds of intensive chemotherapy and his transplant team reached out to Anthony Nolan to find a stem cell donor. A 10/10 match was located in the USA who remains anonymous. In August 2025 he had a third round of intensive chemo, a stem cell transplant and began his recovery.
The transplant initially seemed to have gone well, until mid-October where Neil was re-admitted to hospital with GvHD symptoms and required further testing. Unfortunately, following a biopsy it was confirmed he had relapsed early post-transplant. He continued to have salvage chemotherapy, but the AML cancer was too aggressive, and he was unable to achieve remission, as well as fighting serious infections. Neil sadly passed away on 12th May 2026 at home surrounded by his close family. He was just 38 years old.
Neil continues to make a difference
It is our promise and commitment to him to continue to share his story far and wide to bring awareness and highlight the importance of men's health. My brother-in-law, Ashok, also ran the Great North Run this year, raising over £1300 for Anthony Nolan, in Neil’s name.
When Neil was diagnosed with AML, none of us as a family knew much about blood cancer - the treatment required, stem-cell transplants etc we heavily relied on searching the internet, social media and groups to learn more. Neil spent a lot of time in hospital reading about other patient's journeys and stories to help encourage him and remain hopeful. Neil did experience some key symptoms such as episodes of breathlessness a while before he was diagnosed, we want to encourage young men in particular to insure they seek medical help, arrange a blood test early if they are feeling unwell.
We also want to encourage people from the South Asian community to join the register. Leukaemia can affect anyone at any age, no one is immune to leukaemia, leukaemia does not discriminate by age, background or health as we have learned with Neil's story - who was a fit and healthy young man. We need more donors to sign up to the stem cell register, there are people in our community being diagnosed with blood cancers who need our support and a stem cell donor is most likely to come from the same ethnic or ancestral background as the patient.
If sharing Neil’s story helps even one person, it would mean a lot to us.