Current Events
Community To The Rescue: Matching Bone Marrow Donor Wanted
by JESSICA EARLE
Hundreds of people in Edmonton's Sikh and South Asian community (Aloberta, Canada) answered the call to help a 13-year-old boy battle a rare form of leukemia Sunday, January 16, 2011, doing a simple test to see if they are a match for a bone marrow transplant.
A mass cheek swabbing event took over the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Mill Woods, with the hope someone will prove a viable donor for Brampton's (Ontario) Jasnoor ("Noor") Singh Deol. An operation is the best bet for the teenager because a chromosome abnormality makes for high chances of the cancer returning, even if he enters remission.
The challenge is his community make up only 2.6 per cent of Canada's stem cell registry. Since those with shared ethnicity have the highest chance of proving a match, his family is rallying to the cause, asking healthy individuals between the ages of 17 to 50 to come out and get tested.
"What we need to do is get more people involved," argued Noor's uncle Raminder Singh Gill, who organized the Edmonton event.
"You can't expect them to come to your fight - you have to bring it to them sometimes ... One thing with our community, there's a lack of knowledge of the situation, but once you bring it out there they're more than willing to come out."
The clinic was organized after 2,300 Sikh-Canadians and others of South Asian descent turned out to a December cheek swabbing event in Toronto, with none proving a match.
At least 500 people turned out on Sunday, hoping there is strength in numbers.
"If it saves someone's life, why not do it?" argued Ravi Singh. "I'm a Sikh, I should be helping the community and the people, right? It's my responsibility ... I'm going to tell my friends and they're going to tell their friends."
Others who took part in the event say they were surprised by how quickly the test was finished.
"It just took us about ten, fifteen minutes," said Rajinder Kaur, who came out with her entire family. "I never thought it's that easy."
Coordinators who work with the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Network say that's the message they want to get across to all potential donors. They offer mail-out tests that take about ten minutes to complete, and could save the lives of 818 Canadians who are waiting to find matches, 33 of whom are from the South Asian community.
"That's our goal ... let [people] know that there are patients within their community group that are in need and they can be maybe the one match to save a life," said spokesperson Cassandra DeLuca. "We may not find a match for Noor. We may find a match for somebody else."
She adds other minority groups are also slightly under-represented, with the registry showing 82 per cent Caucasian participants, despite one out of five Canadians coming from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Raminder Singh, a relative newcomer to Edmonton, is celebrating the fact droves of people turned out in a bid help his nephew and others in a similar position.
"It's one of those heart-warming moments," he said. "I've only been here for a year and just seeing how many people are showing me support and showing my family support, it's such a great thing."
The strong turnout is also bolstering the family in Toronto, on a day when Noor took a turn for the the worse and was sent back to hospital.
In a Skype interview on Thursday, the teenager said as long as people keep getting tested, he has hope someone will be his match.
"It means a lot. It means for sure I'll get better, that I have nothing to worry about," he said.
Coordinators say they should know in about four weeks if anyone in Edmonton is a viable donor. Raminder Singh says if no one does, there are plans to hold another cheek swabbing clinic in Vancouver (British Columbia).
For more information on the OneMatch program, click here.
[Courtesy: CTV News]
January 17, 2011