Daniel De Gale’s short life touched thousands of people all over the world. He was the inspiration behind the establishment of one of Britain's most well known and respected black charities - The African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT).
"He was a remarkable young man – when it needed it, he would just step up and do and say things well beyond the call of duty … he knew there were others who needed help - so he was giving something back. He was always befriending anyone to try and make a difference", says his step-father Orin Lewis
The Croydon based trust was founded in 1996 by Daniel's mother and step-father Beverley de Gale and Orin Lewis following Daniel's diagnosis with leukaemia at 6 years old.
As a black child his family found there was only a 3% chance of finding a suitable donor on the national bone marrow register.
This gave Daniel the staggering odds of 1 in 250,000 chance of finding a suitable donor. If he had been white, he would have had a 1 in 5 chance of finding a successful match.
Daniel 'the music man'
"We always thought this was going to be a monumental journey but we just didn't know how and how big it was going to be. You just felt that this was going to be the beginning of something big and Daniel was the catalyst for it", continues Orin
Although a successful match was found for Daniel in 1999, his parents have continued to campaign to get more black and other ethnic minority people registered to become potential blood donors.
Twelve years later, the charity has increased the numbers of donors from 550 when it started to 25,000 today reducing the odds by almost half.
Daniel who was in remission sadly passed away aged 21 as a result of complications with his health not related to his cancer.
His family say the campaign will continue as he would have expected nothing less.
"We know that this is what Daniel would have expected from us and we've never been in any doubt that whatever happened to Daniel nine years ago, much less unfortunately where we are now, that the work had to continue", said his mother Beverley
Watch the full interview with Daniel’s parents by clicking onto link below and top right hand of the page.
