Bone Marrow Donor Appeal

[mickmcmanners]

[note from admin: This thread will be heavily moderated to keep on topic]

Hi all,

My friend has a close family friend who has a baby girl who is nearly two years old with Leukaemia. This is not one of those fake appeals everyone hates so please dont stop reading yet. I am trying to help them as much as I can since a donor needs to be found very soon to help save her life.

You may have seen an article about it in the Daily Mirror on Monday which can be found here:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-20820850/

and may have even seen an appeal on Five news:

www.fivetvonline.tv/news.php?news=1164

Iona's ethnic background is mother of Chinese and father of English, because of her half-Chinese, half-English background there is a shortage of suitable donors. I am posting to this forum as many of you may know of people who can help and I have not seen a thread for it yet.

If anyone is between the age of 18-40 with a similar background, please visit any National Blood Service (bloodbank) and fill in a Bone Marrow Registration form or log on to the Anthony Nolan website at www.anthonynolan.org.uk and download a medical questionaire

A sample of blood is then taken and sent back to the laboratory for tissue typing to see if you are a match. If you are, then you could be that special person who could save Iona's life.

This is a plea for people with a similar ethnic background to Iona to come forward and see if you can be a possible match.

Please forward this to all friends around the UK to increase the probability that a donor maybe found. Please have anyone whose able to help contact the helpline or look the parents up in Facebook. The Facebook group also has details for those living internationally who may wish to help.

If you would like to do this or just show your support on Facebook. Please go to:

www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...5773411&ref=mf

Thanks for your help,

M

[Miyuki]

C'mon people, if you haven't done this already, go for it!

[swinger]

For people who remember, this little boy got his transplant and it saved his life:

www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-01-30-mix-marrow_x.htm

I remember reading about him, too, when he was looking. Another little guy, who I read about last year, sadly didn't make it.

It's easier to register than you think!

"Call or e-mail AADP for a HOME-TEST KIT if you cannot attend a drive. We will ask you a series of questions, and then send you a kit if you still qualify. Kits are fully funded through a special grant for anyone of all or partial ethnic minority descent."

www.aadp.org/pages/page.php?pageid=16

[TeeHee]

It's stories like the ones mentioned above and similar cases in the past that compelled me to join the registry. So yea, I'm already on it

[Miyuki]

Me too. I couldn't NOT do it, especially when you think about having your own kids and imagining going through something like this.

[Phil]

How is this going? This computer is so laggy , the facebook link didnt work neither did the first. Can I help from Germany?

[Miyuki]

The initial link I tried way back when was for the US only, but they pointed me in the right direction for a Canadian agency. Maybe there's a German equivalent?

[grindx]

I've been in the registry for a number of years, but if I was called upon, I couldn't donate. I can't take any risk, no matter how small now that I have two children who depend on me to stay healthy and not lose any work time.

[Miyuki]

Grindx, I understand your reasons, but have you given any thought to being on the other end of the situation? If your kids needed a donor, wouldn't it just kill you to know a potential donor didn't sign up so they wouldn't lose income? Sorry to sound harsh, but I'm genuinely curious how you'd feel if you were in the same situation.

[swinger]

I had something to ask grindx also, but since Miyuki put it so *nicely* already, I'll bite my tongue.

[black mamba]

Does anyone know anything about MatchMaker (http://www.mavin.net/projects/matchmaker.html)?

It sounds like a great idea, but without its own official website, I wonder what their success rate is. Might be worth looking into.

[Phil]

I read the canadian site before. But what are the risks?


One of our executive members at the Mixed STudents Association at York really looked into the donar registry and displays a board with info at all our tabling events.

[Paddy]

It was reported that a donor had been found in Australia. The transplant marrow was flown over on October 31st. There was a huge facebook response and it's believed the donor was found via this campaign The operation was carried out yesterday (Nov 20th). That's the latest - at least on facebook.

It's funny, when I realised the kid was mixed, I felt I had to do something, especially as I am in the UK. I wouldn't have felt like that if the kid wasn't EA. I'll be contacting the UK National Blood Service.

The Daily Mirror said that around 4% of blood donors are Asian - 'less than other ethnic groups'. I wonder why that is? Bare in mind that in the UK, 'Asian' usually refers to people from the Indian sub-continent - so it's hard to know what the statistic really means. I know that in China they struggle to get blood donors. The Chinese authorities have tried shaming people into giving blood by saying that even China's expatriates give more blood by proportion than the native population.

[Paddy]

Yeah, I've been shamed into action by Australians giving blood to british babies!

[TeeHee]

Nov 21, 2008 12:59:18 GMT -5 Phil said:

I read the canadian site before. But what are the risks?

From what I've known, read, etc. The procedure could be done in one of two ways: 1) If any surgery is involved, it's minimally invasive, not requiring any stitches afterwards. 2) This other option involves administering certain drugs that stimulate the release of stem cells from the bone marrow into circulating blood. An IV is inserted into the donor's arm, and the stem cells are filtered out of the blood. It's similar to donating blood. Majority of bone marrow transplant procedures are done this way. Whatever pain or discomfort experienced wouldn't much so be from the retrieval process itself, but from the medication taken to stimulate the release of those stem cells. Some donors may have symptoms such as headache, bone or muscle pain, nausea, insomnia or fatigue in the few days leading up to donation, but these symptoms nearly always disappear one or two days after donating, and the donor is back to normal shortly after that(within a week). Both procedures are done under general or local anesthesia.
So yea, the process is typically similar to donating blood. In the same way that some blood donors may feel fatique for a short time afterwards, that's the "risk" involved with being a bone marrow donor, which I consider to be a small one considering the potential for saving someone's life. Or if one may have some drastic averse reaction to the medication; but then again, all prospective donors are medically screened beforehand to ensure that they're in good health and that the procedure would be safe for them. So yea, very minimal risk.