Coach McInnes' Fund

Hi, my name is Alex McInnes and I am fundraising for my older Brother and best friend, Jamie McInnes.

To those that know Jamie, you will all know what a hardworking, driven and loyal person he is.

To those who don't know Jamie, he has been a dedicated football coach on the Isle of Wight since 2006. Jamie has coached many youth teams on the Isle of Wight, including Ryde United CFC, Sandown & Lake FC and Ryde Saints FC (who he also played for, predominantly as a Goalkeeper). Jamie also worked at several schools on the Isle of Wight, predominantly focused on sports coaching & development. Jamie's reputation as a coach and as a person on the Isle of Wight goes before him, and he has touched and positively impacted so many lives of young learners and footballers.

In 2018, Jamie had the opportunity to get into professional football, which is what he had always wanted to do. Jamie got the role of Torquay United Community Sports Trust manager, overseeing all of their outreach football programmes to the wider Torbay community. Alongside this, Jamie also became the manager of the Women's First Team for Torquay United, helping to build on their infrastructure and improve the player's skills and confidence. As well as Torquay United, Jamie has also coached at Exeter City FC Women's team, managing the Women's reserve team for a period, as well as running his own Goalkeeper coaching sessions.

Throughout his career, as much as Jamie loves seeing children/young adults develop their football skills, he is much more invested in seeing them develop as people, by instilling good morals, manners and mindset.

In June of this year, Jamie became very poorly, very quickly. As soon as I knew how serious it sounded, I rushed to Devon from the Isle of Wight to be with Jamie. With the help of his friend, we managed to get Jamie to A&E as he was just not right. He had been vomiting for the best part of a week, his urine was very dark, and he had very high temperatures, as well as fatigue.

Upon being admitted to Torbay Hospital, the first Doctor that he saw realised how unwell he was and said he came in at the right time. Whilst in Torbay Hospital, Jamie was diagnosed with suspected EBV (Epstein Barr Virus) which was causing him to have a swollen liver, and consequently suffer from Jaundice, as well as his other symptoms. The more that this was looked into by Doctors, the more they realised that Jamie needed specialist treatment and was then transported 40 miles away from his home, to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, to be placed on a Liver Specialist Unit.

After a few more days and a few more horribles tests and procedures (Bone Marrow testing and a Liver Biopsy), Jamie was diagnosed with an incredibly rare disease called HLH (Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis). I will provide a full detailed description of the disease below, but in essence his red blood cells have gone in to overdrive, and his immune system is attacking his organs, primarily the liver, and this is thought to be his body's response to the Epstein Barr Virus.

As I write this, Jamie is laid up in a hospital bed with his Mother and Father beside him, supporting him through it all. He has made some improvements but in layman's terms, this could potentially kill him.

If Jamie is able to recover from this, which I have full faith in him doing, as he is otherwise young, fit and healthy, his recovery will most likely be a very slow process and this could change his life.

What I am asking of you is a lot, but the £5000 target would help Jamie in his recovery when he is out of hospital and also a percentage (TBD) would be donated to Histio UK and Immunodeficiancy UK, in order to provide money towards further research into this very rare disease.

Please donate as much or as little as you can. Anything is appreciated.

Alex McInnes (11/07/2023)

HLH description -

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an unusual syndrome characterized by fever, splenomegaly, jaundice, and the pathologic finding of hemophagocytosis (phagocytosis by macrophages of erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets, and their precursors) in bone marrow and other tissues. HLH may be diagnosed in association with malignant, genetic, or autoimmune diseases but is also prominently linked with Epstein-Barr (EBV) virus infection. Hyperproduction of cytokines, including interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, by EBV- infected T lymphocytes may play a role in the pathogenesis of HLH. EBV-associated HLH may mimic T-cell lymphoma and is treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy, while hemophagocytic syndromes associated with nonviral pathogens often respond to treatment of the underlying infection.