THE father of campaigning journalist Adrian Sudbury today urged: “Let’s make sure we never forget his message”.
Keith Sudbury and his wife Kay want to ensure that the huge campaign started by their 27-year-old son is not allowed to drift.
Both want to ensure that hundreds if not thousands of people sign up as potential bone marrow donors, in the wake of Adrian’s death last week after an 18-month battle against leukaemia.
Keith said: “As parents we are phenomenally proud of our son and what he has achieved.
“We have been overwhelmed by the warmth and love that has come out from every corner of the world since his death, and for that we are extremely grateful.
“But what we don’t want to happen is for the real focus of Adrian’s campaign, Sign Up For Sudders, to get lost.
“Adrian was a savvy person; he said to me in his last few days that it was a great news story and would continue to be so when he died.
“He had a talent that made him special. He could touch people in a certain way and make them do things.
“The warmth and the love shown to him and to us is tremendous but all we want, and all Adrian wanted, was to encourage people to sign up to the bone marrow donor register.
“Adrian’s mantra in his last few weeks was ‘Go do it’ and that’s the point I want to make. Don’t think about it; if you are aged between 18 and 40 and you want to do something in Adrian’s memory, then sign up to that register.”
Adrian, a Huddersfield Daily Examiner journalist, lost his fight for life last week.
He was diagnosed with two forms of leukaemia in November, 2006, but determined to use the time he had left to campaign on two fronts.
He wanted people to sign up as potential bone marrow donors to help the 16,000 people needing transplants, and he wanted to persuade the Government to introduce talks on the subject into every school and college.
He was successful in both, with huge increases in the numbers coming forward and a pledge from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Cabinet colleagues to introduce the school talks this autumn.
Keith Sudbury said: “It makes Kay and I feel very happy and very humble to see and hear the effect on people that our son, the boy we brought up for 27 years, has had.
“But Adrian was all about the campaign and when we have a memorial service to him in Sheffield, I want to be able to look round and say to people: ‘Have you signed on the register?”
TO find out more about signing up as a bone marrow donor contact the Anthony Nolan Trust on www.anthonynolan.org.uk or visit NHS Blood and Transplant on www.blood.co.uk (Call 0845 7711 711).
