Our Motto

“Anyone can be a hero”

WHO WE ARE

We create awareness, educate, engage and offer support to those suffering from leukaemia and other blood cancers.

Since being established in 2015, KKLT has sought to engage with BAME (black, asian & minority ethnic communities to raise awareness of Leukaemia, educate and inform the community about Stem Cell Donation (commonly known as bone marrow donation), and encourage individuals to join the stem cell registry. Our aim is to increase the number of potential stem cell donors in the registry thus increasing BME community’s survival rates.

We have done this through delivering presentations, distributing information leaflets, use of social media, organising events, seeking speaking opportunities in various BAME community gatherings, and partnering with places of worship to talk and holding registration drives.

More recently we have started to expand our services to include the distribution of food parcels and provide emotional and physical support to people with blood cancers and their families, thus reducing their isolation/loneliness and increasing their emotional and mental well-being.

Our story

The Kevin Kararwa Leukaemia Trust (KKLT) was born out of a profound sense of loss and a heartfelt mission. Kevin Kararwa, a vibrant and charismatic young man, was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 22. Due to the lack of ethnic diversity in the stem cell registry, finding a matching stem cell donor was an insurmountable challenge for Kevin, his family, and friends. Despite their tireless efforts, a suitable donor was never found.
 
Kevin’s brother offered a 50% matched donation, but unfortunately, it was not successful. In 2014, at the tender age of 24, Kevin lost his battle with leukaemia before a suitable donor could be found.
 
Kevin’s dying wish was to register over 2,400 new volunteer donors onto the UK bone marrow registry—a hundred for each year of his life. His legacy lives on through KKLT, dedicated to increasing awareness and diversifying the bone marrow registry to save lives.

Our Vision

 

Our vision is to ensure everyone has the same Leukaemia survival rate regardless of their ethnic background.

Our Mission Statement

Our mission is to raise awareness about leukaemia, blood cancers, stem cell & bone marrow donation. We would like to raise the percentage of BME stem cell donors by 3% by year 2030.

Our Values

Dedication, Commitment, Integrity and Empathy

  • KKLT prides ourself on our dedication to others and the people we encounter regardless of their situations.
  • We are commited to our beneficiaries, donors, those blood cancers, their families and friends
  • KKLT believes in the strength of our integrity and aims to showcase this in everything we do.
  • Through our lived experience we want our beneficiaries to feel the empathy we have for their present and future position.

Why our work is needed

The statistics show that leukaemia is more commonly diagnosed in white and black males than in Asian males. Although leukaemia only accounts for 3% of all cancer related deaths, there are still around 4,700 leukaemia deaths in the UK every year, which is 13 deaths a day. However, the survival rate for individuals diagnosed with leukaemia is improving with 1-2 surviving five years or more and 4 in 10 for ten years or more. In fact, the survival rate has more than quadrupled in the last 40 years in the UK.
Only 61% of BME patients in need of a stem cell transplant find a suitably matched donor, compared to 96% of White Northern European patients. BME donors make up 15% of the stem cell register while black donors make up 2% of potential donors on the British Bone Marrow Registry.

Through our own research, we have found the most common issue is a lack of knowledge about the leukaemia and stem donation/bone marrow donations, particularly within the African communities in United Kingdom. We also recognise that other barriers have a significant role to play in this lack of knowledge and awareness. The key barriers that we have found are the issues around religious beliefs, cultural and traditional stances.

We have also identified a disparity in the survival rates between Caucasian and groups from other ethnic backgrounds. The figures show that white individuals have a 70% chance of survival compared to only 20% chance for BME backgrounds.

Awareness Video