MANCHESTER City ace Niall Quinn has a new goal - after joining a race against time for a £200,000 target that could save a child's life.
Twenty-month-old James Stewardson, from Duncombe Close, Bramhall, has one of the rarest illnesses in the world and he has a life expectancy of five years. He is only the 28th recorded case world- wide of TPI - Triose Phosphate Isomerase - caused by an enzyme deficiency.
The cash- is needed for researchers at Kings College Hospital, London, to try to come up with a cure.
Niall began quietly helping to raise Funds before Christmas. He heard of James’s plight when he agreed to present a cheque by Bramhall Round Table to his parents, David and Yvonne. At a recent St. Oisins Gaelic night he moved the audience so much. that a massive £7,000 was raised with help from boxer Barry McGuigan. But Niall warned: ‘Because it is such a rare disease the money will not guarantee success. So little is known about it. James is one of only four people alive who are known to be suffering from TPI.’
David said: 'Niall has given the fund a real boost. We have also had help from radio personalities Susie Mathis and Steve Penk and many local people. We hit our first target of £40,000 by last September to enable the two-person research team to be set up. So far we have raised £110,000 in six months so we are half way there.'
Donations can be made at any branch of Barclays Bank, using sort code 20-70-46, account number 20585599 and made payable to 'the James Stewardson Research and Welfare Trust', registered charity 1039664. The Charity account is at Barclay’s Radbroke Hall Branch, Knutsford, Cheshire.
This article is courtesy of the Manchester Evening News.
