'My healthy son, 9, started coming home covered in bruises – what came next tore our world apart'

Joey Stowell, nine, from Cornwall, was a normal, “happy” boy according to his dad, Brandon Stowell, 30, before he started to become lethargic and came home "covered in bruises"

The family of a "healthy" nine-year-old boy have had their world torn apart after the tiredness and bruising he experienced turned out to be a potentially deadly condition.

Joey Stowell, from Cornwall, was a normal, "happy", boy according to his dad, Brandon, 30. But he started to become lethargic and pale in July and was "covered in bruises".

Worried about his son, the dad-of-three took Joey to a doctor, who was concerned following an initial check-up and sent the family to their local hospital for blood tests. There, it was discovered that Joey had extremely low haemoglobin, white blood cell and platelet counts.

Joey was transferred to the Bristol Children's Hospital, where it was discovered he had aplastic anaemia - a rare and serious condition known as bone marrow failure which affects 30-40 children each year, according to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH). Now, the young lad urgently requires a bone marrow transplant.

Joey’s two sisters, Florence, eight, and Ellie-May, 13, had a blood test to see if they could donate, however, it was revealed they were not a match for the transplant. After this, the family waited for an external donor to become available and they are now preparing for the operation which is scheduled for the end of the month and involves Joey being isolated for a minimum of six weeks.

Brandon has since set up a GoFundMe page to help the family cope with everyday expenses. He said it will relieve them of the “big pressure” of worrying about whether they can “afford to eat” or “afford to give Joey a little treat”.

“It’s hit home hard and all you want to do is take it away, you want to be able to have what they’ve got and just go through it yourself,” Brandon, a self-employed hairdresser, explained. “Joey’s strength and persistence, the way he deals with it all, gives me the strength to carry on and help him through.”

Brandon said Joey started to present with some worrying symptoms in July this year. He said: “Joey was a normal, healthy boy but he became very lethargic, he wasn’t himself, he was very pale. He was also covered in bruises, which were coming up on random places on his body but we put it down to him being a young boy because you know what they’re like, jumping off the sofa and things. He was becoming more out of breath to the point where one day, when he woke up, he completely changed, he didn’t look very well.”

Brandon said they had already booked a blood test for Joey but they visited their GP again to speed up the process. He said their doctor was concerned following an initial observation and sent the family to their local hospital for further tests.

“When we received the blood test back, his haemoglobin count was something around 15, which is severely low,” Brandon said. According to the NHS, a normal child aged between six and 12 should have a haemoglobin count of between 115 and 155. It was also found Joey’s white blood cell and platelet counts were low – the latter of which had caused the bruising on his body – and he underwent a blood transfusion.

“It raised the question as to what was going on as he wasn’t producing his own blood properly,” Brandon said. Within the next few days, the family were sent to Bristol Children’s Hospital, Brandon said, where Joey was treated with antibiotics for an infection and underwent further testing.

“He was presenting quite strong symptoms for leukaemia but we found out through the blood tests and through a bone marrow aspiration, where they take a small sample of your bone marrow, he was pre-diagnosed with aplastic anaemia,” Brandon said.

According to GOSH, aplastic anaemia, or bone marrow failure, is a rare disease and about 30 to 40 children are diagnosed with it each year. The condition affects the blood where the bone marrow and stem cells do not produce enough blood cells.

Joey was discharged from Bristol Children’s Hospital and sent back to his local hospital in Cornwall. He underwent further testing on his bone marrow, with Brandon saying his son has now had “many” blood and platelet transfusions – before doctors informed the family he will now need an urgent bone marrow transplant. Following a blood test, it was found Joey’s two sisters were not a match for the transplant, meaning the family had to wait for an external donor to become available.

“They think at one point Joey might have had an infection of a virus or bacteria which might have been inside his bone marrow and which would have triggered this response in his body,” Brandon said. “There are many different ways that this could have been triggered, it could be genetic, but they’re not 100% sure why it’s happened.”

Joey will soon undergo a course of chemotherapy, Brandon said, before healthy bone marrow can be inserted during a transplant operation which is scheduled for the end of November at a hospital in London. He will also need to be medically isolated in hospital for six weeks to protect him from infection as “he will have no immunity left after the chemotherapy”.

“We, as parents, will still be allowed to cuddle him but we need to make sure we’re healthy and not infectious ourselves,” Brandon said. He added the last five months have “hit us hard”. He said: “It was the shock factor as we didn’t realise something like that became so serious so fast. It’s very upsetting, I feel anxious not knowing what’s going to happen day to day.”

Brandon said Joey has dealt with the situation “fantastically”. He added: “He’s a very happy-go-lucky boy, he’s normally bouncing, full of energy. He’s quite aware he is very unwell and he deals with it really, really fantastically.”

Brandon has set up the GoFundMe page to help the family deal with everyday expenses, such as accommodation and transport costs around Joey’s hospital appointments, raising more than £3,000 so far. He said: “It will just help us as a family to take that big pressure off of us having to worry about, ‘can we afford to eat tonight’ or ‘can we afford to give Joey a little treat’.

“Thank you for supporting my son and my family, words can’t describe how much love, support and appreciation I feel.”