Daniel’s family give update after teen returns to hospital

Last week they asked the community to pray for him after they received news that his leukaemia has retuned.

Daniel was diagnosed with leukaemia in May 2022, receiving support not only from his mother Anne, father Paul and brother James, but from the thousands of people who supported the ‘Do it for Daniel’ campaign.

The appeal raised awareness about blood cancer charity DKMS and encouraged people to sign up to the register and potentially save a life.

Within one week of the Greer family publicly calling for people to sign up, 9,000 people did just that and many more have done so over the last two years.

Just last month, after two years of battling cancer, Daniel had signified the end of his treatment by ringing the bell at Manchester Children’s Hospital.

However, posting on the campaign’s Facebook page last week, his family said that they were “devastated” to say that Daniel is back in hospital.

“We are devastated to have to tell you that just a few short weeks after Daniel rang the bell at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and came back home to Newry, his family were told that his leukaemia had returned,” the post read.

“Since getting the latest diagnosis they have been trying to make the most of his time at home and also visiting Daniel's wider family and friends, just to catch up on all that he has missed out on.

“But right now our little fighter is currently very unwell in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. His family have asked again for your prayers as they deal with this latest battle.

“Thank you as always for all your support for Daniel.”

On Tuesday past the family thanked everyone for their prayers.

“Daniel was taken into intensive care at the end of last month because he had developed sepsis which left him gravely ill,” they explained.

"Sepsis can be difficult to fight, even for a healthy person, but for a 16-year-old who is already very weak with leukemia it is extremely dangerous.

“Thankfully, staff at the RVH managed to stabilise Daniel to the point that he was strong enough to leave ICU and return to the haematology ward. He is still a very, very ill boy but right now he is mostly comfortable, despite the many complications of this horrible disease.”

The family added that they are “grateful for all the incredible support, including from people like Daniel’s lovely friend Róise”, who is overcoming her fear of heights to do a skydive this weekend for DKMS.

Róise, a 21-year-old part-time business student at Ulster University and apprentice, is one of Daniel’s childhood friends.

"At one point, Daniel was very, very ill with blood cancer and we didn’t know if he was going to make it... I wanted to help," shares Róise.

Unable to join the stem cell register due to a health condition, Róise signed up as a DKMS volunteer and recently organised a concert in her and Daniel's hometown of Newry, raising vital funds to support DKMS.

“I’ve been very scared of heights, but I’ve been trying to get over my fear,” said Róise.

"I was in Canada recently, where I made myself go on the longest zipline ride in the US and Canada – I found that once you get to a certain level you can’t even tell what height you’re at, so hopefully I’m ready now for my skydive. At least I’ll be strapped to someone!” she explained.