Parents of a three-year-old boy waiting for a multi-organ transplant are attempting to raise £1m so they can seek treatment in the US in a bid to save his life.
Ralph is one of 230 children in the UK who are in need of a life-saving organ donation, the highest number in almost a decade.
He was diagnosed with liver cancer in January and in May he went into surgery for a liver transplant when doctors decided to abort the procedure because the cancer had spread to his pancreas and bowel too.
He now needs a multi-organ transplant from a child of a similar size.
Children who die are presumed to have opted out from organ donation, unlike adults, and only half of all families of children approached about organ donation say yes. This has led to a shortage of donors, according to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).
In comparison, the consent rate for child organ donation in the US stands at 75%.
“We’ve been advised that that is our best option to go to America,” said Katie Tatham, Ralph’s mum, speaking to Sky News at her home in Essex.
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“It’s absolutely our last resort. We were really hoping a donor would come up in time in the UK, but unfortunately it hasn’t and we just don’t have the time to wait.
“So we’ve launched a GoFundMe to try to raise £1m to save Ralph’s life.”
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Ralph’s parents say more families need to say yes to organ donation.
“There’s so few donors that by saying ‘yes’ you would actually save another child’s life. And we’re not saying definitely do it, but we’re saying think about it in advance because you wouldn’t want to be in a situation where the first time you considered it was at the point of being in the worst situation.”
Six years ago, a tragic road accident left Loanna Ball’s daughter Keira with life-threatening injuries. Loanna and Keira’s father decided to donate Keira’s organs.
“I can’t believe she isn’t here,” she told Sky News. “It is a rubbish situation to be in. None of us wants to lose our children. Sadly it happens but the thought that actually she’s donating her organs and she’s living on in others is incredible… If we can benefit and support and help other people, why not?”
Max Johnson was the recipient of Keira’s heart. In 2017, the then prime minister Theresa May proposed a new law referred to as Max’s Law to launch an opt-out organ donation system for England.
“The law doesn’t apply to children,” explains Rachel Rowson, head of regional nursing at the NHSBT’s London Organ Donation Team.
“That’s why it’s really important for people to put themselves on the organ donor register and sign up. Regardless of children or adults, when we know somebody has opted into the organ donor register, we have a much higher consent rate.”
For many children waiting for organs such as a heart, lungs or bowel, like Ralph, they will need a transplant from another child who is a similar size to them. NHSBT says only 1% of people currently die in circumstances where organ donation is possible, but each donor who is able to donate has the potential to save up to nine people’s lives.
In Northern Ireland, the Organ and Tissue Donation (Deemed Consent) legislation is known as Daithi’s Law in honour of six-year-old Daithi MacGabhann who has campaigned for the law change. The 1st of June marked exactly five years from when Daithi was added to the transplant waiting list.
“It’s an up and down rollercoaster,” his father Mairtin MacGabhann told Sky News, describing the wait for that all-important call.
“Daithi was born with a severe heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which means that he has half a heart.”
Daithi interrupts: “I’ve been waiting for a long time.”
Daithi’s family hope that paediatric organ donation can “become the norm”.
“Some people may think that it’s a lot to ask but what those people may not understand is it’s the only thing we can ask to see our children. So we want people to have more conversations about paediatric organ donation and hopefully it’ll just become the norm in society.”
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
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His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.