The young football fan whose club helped to save his life

For any nine year old football fan seeing your side win at home is hugely exciting.

For Finn McEwan the match at Everton this weekend was even better - it was his first since the club helped save his life.

Finn had been diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disease and Everton held screening events to help find a donor for a transplant.

Just over two years on, Finn and his family have been told he's all clear.


"Finn McEwan was the seven-year-old boy who was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disease which causes a drop in the number of healthy blood cells.

In a bid to find Finn a suitable donor the ‘Save Finn McEwan’ campaign was launched encouraging people to come forward and get tested to see if they were a match. Finn, a massive Evertonian, was invited into Finch Farm in March 2015 to meet the Everton players to help raise awareness of the campaign to find a donor.

A number of screening events were held by DKMS across Merseyside, including at Goodison Park, which eventually resulted in a match for Finn.

In June 2015 Finn underwent a treatment of chemotherapy which was followed by a successful bone marrow transplant. The transplant involved a few hours of transfusion of his donor’s bone marrow and following a short time in hospital Finn was able to continue his recovery at home alongside his regular hospital appointments.

After Finn’s regular clinic appointment at the Manchester Children’s Hospital this morning Finn and his family received the news they had been praying for. Professor Rob Wynn told Finn that as far as he was concerned his “leukaemia is cured, and the other serious conditions following the transplant were resolved.”

Finn can now return to living a normal and healthy life, going back to school and playing football.

We look forward to seeing Finn and his family back at Goodison Park in the future and for a long time to come."