The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion held a ‘drop in’ event last month at Portcullis House to promote the need for more mixed heritage stem cell donors. The event took place prior to the launch of a new documentary being released on ITVX on 17 July 2025: ‘Chasing The Odds – A Journey of Hope’ – featuring Pete McCleave’s journey to Macau in search of a lifesaving donor to treat his blood cancer.
Followers of Team Margot will recognise Pete McCleave from our work together over several years, and following my trip to Macau late last year when I joined Pete for a few days to help in a supporting role.
To recap, Pete is a father-of-two with blood cancer; he travelled more than 6,000 miles to Macau to find a suitable stem cell (bone marrow) donor. Forty-seven-year-old Pete was given seven years to live after being diagnosed with Myeloma in 2017. Hailing from Bunbury in Cheshire, Pete was told he could extend his life with a stem cell transplant, but he has struggled to find a genetic match primarily because of his mixed heritage.
Today, he is in a race against time to find the perfect match – with his mix of Macanese (Chinese and Portuguese), Irish and English making finding a compatible tissue type extremely difficult.
The Group hosted 15 Parliamentarians and their representatives during the drop in session.
The above TRAILER is a precursor to the ITV documentary which is scheduled for launch on ITVX on 17th July 2025.
Documentary film maker: Mel Barham
Camera / Film credits: Mike Ledward
Special thanks to Andrew Foster, James Mackay, Salmaan Daalvi Phd, Dr Daniel McCloskey, Paul Hegarty, Jonathan Graves and Orin Lewis OBE for supporting and of course, to the APPG Chair, Bell Ribiero Addy for hosting.
Team Margot’s mission
To help save and improve lives by educating, inspiring and motivating people, especially from ethnically diverse communities, to register as blood, organ and stem cell donors.