This is from the blog of a dear friend and I wanted to post it with the hope that one of you might be able to help! I can only imagine how desperate I would be if one of my children would have been in such a life threatening situation.
A 4-year-old needs a bone marrow transplant; the situation is dire
I'm copying here a note circulated by Bloomberg on behalf of their colleague. If you have never registered with the Bone Marrow Registry, please consider doing it. It's a very simple process. This story puts a face to all those people that are waiting for a match. Due to his family ancestry (1/4 South Indian, 3/4 European) Devan's potential match could come from someone who is of mixed Asian and European descent.
Our colleague Indira's only child, Devan, needs your help. He’s four and has relapsed with a rare form of high-risk leukemia. His doctors believe his life depends on a bone marrow transplant that they hope to do after 12 weeks of chemotherapy.
What is difficult is finding a donor match – 1 in 200,000 in his case, we've been told - and we haven't found one yet. You or someone you know might be the person who can save Devan’s life. All you need to do is a simple cheek swab to find out. The organizations below will send you a kit. Donating is easy – these days it’s much like a simple blood draw.
1.PLEASE, REGISTER NOW. The test is easy & free, but processing takes time (10 weeks in the UK), and Devan doesn’t have much. Register below.
2.PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON TO OTHERS. Anyone can be a match, but those who are mixed Indian/Caucasian have an even better chance of helping Devan. Please, please, cut and paste this message to strip out email addresses and forward this to everyone you can. By forwarding this email to at least 10 people now, we can spread the word to 50,000 possible donors within 48 hours.
3. VISIT DEVAN’S SITE - www.matchdevan.com - we will be including details on how to organize your own drive, valuable information on leukemia and FAQ’s on registering and donation.
WHERE TO REGISTER
=> In the US go to Be The Match Bone Marrow Registry, http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html (you need to
be 60 or under)
=> In the UK go to the Anthony Nolan Trust, http://bit.ly/cpkxuy
(you’ll need to be 40 or under)
=> In other countries go to Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide, http://bmdw.org/
index.php?id=addresses_members&no_cache=1 Finally, if you’re pregnant, your
cord blood is particularly valuable for helping children like Devan - please
look here to learn more: http://parentsguidecordblood.org/content/usa/banklists/publicbanks_new.shtml?navid=15
Thank you so much for helping.
Sylvia's world in thoughts and pictures
I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!
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I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.
9 comments:
Oh Sylvia, I wish I could help but no-one is prepared to take any spare parts from me since I have had Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
breaks my heart when I see children afflicted like this. Feels the pain of the mum. I understand, once I was in her shoes.
Hope he gets the right donor.
You are so good to publicize this, Sylvia. Art and I are both registered. I remember also doing some kind of blood registry a long time ago. The more people register, the better the chances are for those poor children who are waiting to be helped.
I hope your post will help to find somebody ! What a terrible situation !
Thank you for sharing this my friend. It's excellent and I hope it works :)
I think I could help but I'm far away..
Thanks, Sylvia!
2cute4u, please see the website http://www.matchdevan.com. It list many locations where one can register and send their samples to. Thanks.
Oh the poor sweetie - on my list of things to do now that I'm er here, is re-register for the local Red Cross Blood drives, and will add bone marrow registration to that plan. Devan will be in my prayers!
I hope that something positive will come from this. What heart-ache for those poor parents.
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