The founders of Stem Cell Scousers Kevin and Mary Dunne were invited by King Charles to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.
The Formby couple enjoyed a chat and a handshake with King Charles and were formally presented to Prince Edwards the Duke of Edinburgh who enquired how Mary was now after her stem cell transplant in 2014, and what was the motivation to set up Stem Cell Scousers.
Mary explained to His Majesty during the couple’s visit on Wednesday 7th May 2025 that she was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of leukaemia and would need a stem cell transplant to survive.
The hospital tested her siblings but unfortunately none of them were a matching donor.
The hospital then turned to the Anthony Nolan Stem Cell Donor Register Charity to find a matching donor.
Mary was very lucky and three months later they found the only match in the world in the Northern USA.
The transplant was a success and in 2015 Kevin and Mary set up Stem Cell Scousers to give something back to the Anthony Nolan Trust.
Mary also explained that in 2024 around 2,500 blood cancer patients were searching for donors but sadly only 1,350 found their life saver.
To date Stem Cell Scousers have raised £86,544 for their crusade to defeat blood cancer.
It costs £40 to recruit and maintain just one new donor onto the register.
Stem Cell Scousers has donated £54,140.00 to the Anthony Nolan Trust enabling them to recruit 1,353 new stem cell donors and have attended many Anthony Nolan Donor Drives.
They have donated £2,500 to the DKMS Stem Cell Donor Register Charity and held donor drives which directly recruited 496 new donors, taking the total of new donors recruited to 1,849. They have donated over £5,000 to the Royal Liverpool Hospital where medics treated Mary and donated to other blood cancer charities.
In 2023, Kevin Dunne was a Finalist in the Sefton Charity Champion category at the Grand Pride Of Sefton Awards at the Grand in Southport.
Kevin and Mary Dunne said: “Stem Cell Scousers are currently part of the Blue Token Scheme in Tesco Formby until 30th June and we would appreciate everyone who shops there to put their blue tokens in our slot.
“If we win the vote it will enable us to recruit another 37 new donors, and we will be in-store on
Saturday 7th June recruiting new donors to both the Stem Cell Donor Register and blood donors to the NHS Blood Donor Register.
“We would like to say a massive thank you to all the very generous Formby residents and the many local independent businesses who have donated raffle prizes to our fundraising events. “We would also like to thank the Smokey Squirrel mobile catering unit based in the car park at Formby Football Academy opposite Catterall Motors. They are donating £1 from every £10 meal deal sold, so far raising £361.”
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Do you need advertising, PR or media support? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrownn@gmail.com
