‘Most Beautiful’ Twin Girls on Instagram Ask for Bone Marrow Donors as Their Dad Fights Cancer

Getty Images | Frazer Harrison

The 9-year-old Clements sisters have been modeling most of their lives, starting at the age of 6 months, and have gained millions of followers since their mother, Jacqui, created an Instagram account for them in 2017.

Now, the “most beautiful girls in the world,” as identical twins Ava and Leah have often been called, are using their celebrity status to help find a bone marrow transplant for their dad Kevin Clements, who is fighting a rare and dangerous form of cancer, known as T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma.

Partnering with bone marrow donation bank DKMS, the family issued a call for potential donors to get swabbed and see if they were a perfect match for the 39-year-old Olympic-trained swimmer and high school coach. “If he gets a transplant, his cancer will go away quicker,” Ava told People. Her sister Leah was grateful for the response: “People are so sweet to want to help my dad. The more people that get tested the better.”

Though the diagnosis was devastating, and Kevin would need multiple rounds of chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and ultimately a bone marrow transplant, the Clements family was determined to help their beloved dad and husband beat the disease. After starting a campaign #kevincrushingcancer, they went about using their considerable online presence to ask for help.

As Leah told Inside Edition, “A lot of people look up to us and know us.” Ava added, “We can just spread the word on Instagram.” Showing pictures of their dad fighting cancer at the hospital and at home, the twins drew lots of attention to his plight. For all those in the Orange County area, where the family resides, the Clements held a bone marrow donation compatibility test on Dec. 11, 2019.

As they explained on Instagram, “Please help us find a bone marrow match for our dad @kevin-r-clements. He needs a transplant ASAP!“ Searching for the ”unicorn” who would be a 10 out of 10 match for their dad wasn’t easy. As DKMS explains on its website, “Approximately 70% of all patients in need of bone marrow transplants must find a matching donor outside of their family.”

Rather than blood type, the most important factor for bone marrow donation is a person’s human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. This protein, found on most cells, varies widely within families and means that being related is no guarantee of matching. Thankfully, a simple saliva swab can determine compatibility, and the Clements twins were able to get people from all over the country to send in theirs to see if it could help their dad beat cancer.

Dad Kevin told People that his wife and daughters’ social media campaign had really helped him go on in the face of his blood cancer. “There’s so much love out there. I’ve gotten text messages, emails, and phone calls from people who I haven’t heard from since college,” he said. “It has helped our family really deal with it in a very positive way.”

The twins were able to announce that their dad would be coming home to join them in 2020, as an acceptable, though not ideal, match for him had been found. As they posted on Instagram, “Our dad is set to get a bone marrow transplant on January 17th using our Uncle -his brother- who is a half match.” They thanked all those who had been sending in swab samples and emphasized that the search would continue.

Ava and Leah explained that “[DKMS] will be checking all of the swab kits you guys sent in right up until he goes in for his transplant to see if any of you are a 10/10 match which would be ideal.”