success stories
Ryan Chiu
- Vancouver native pushing campaign for Chinese donors
Shameer
- Why Join Canadian Blood Services' OneMatch
Kailee Wells
- Visit Her Website
Noel Young-Robillard
(Calgary)
Shari Ichelson
- Visit Shari's website (Ontario)
Lourdess
Five years ago, April 10, 2006, Lourdess was diagnosed with leukemia (AML) - which is often diagnosed in adults and more difficult to treat than ALL. Although she responded to the initial round of treatment, including chemotherapy, she relapsed after a year and required a stem cell transplant. Because she is of Caucasian and Philippine descent, the search for a bone marrow donor turned up negative. This is frequently the case because there is a shortage of registered donors of mixed ethnicity which underscores the importance of people from all ethnic backgrounds becoming part of the unrelated bone marrow donor registry.
Fortunately, Lourdess was the first recipient at BC Children’s Hospital to receive stem cells from two different umbilical cords (obtained from Japan and South Carolina) on February 18, 2008. Today she is healthy and thriving 13 year old thanks to two moms who gave the cord blood cells of their babies to their local cord blood bank.
