Yesterday I got a message from a friend asking where she could sign up to be a stem cell donor. It has been awhile since I have told our story, and why donation is so very important.
After having an Autologous transplant, where John’s own cells were harvested and then infused after heavy chemo, John had relapsed and we were sent to University of Chicago. Dr Smith had explained that the best way to obtain a cure would be to have a donor transplant. She said that being a white male, there would be about a 75% chance that we would find a 10/10 match in the donor database. Of course John asked if perhaps they could find a donor that was Irish and liked to drink beer! Lets circle back for a quick second. Here’s how the donor matching works
- A perfect match is an identical twin. The markers used in this type of match go beyond the 10/10 protein markers that are normally used to identify a match.
- The next best match would be a sibling.
- At this point the database would be used to attempt to find a 10/10 match.
- If there are no matches, as in John’s case, they would potentially utilize a child, as a child would have a 50% match.
- No children…. so then they would look for a parent, as a parent would also be a 50% match.
- 50% parental match plus a cord blood chaser
Cord Blood…..SAVE IT! Save it for yourself…donate it. Just do it, it too, can save lives! John received cells harvested from his mom, and then got a shot of cord blood from a blood bank.
Please remember that John was actually free of any cancer for a year before his passing. His transplant worked. It was a compromised immune system that caused him to not be able to shake the influenza.
It is super simple to register to be a donor. A survey and a cheek swab is all it takes. Peripheral donation isn’t painful, like most may think. Yes there are some aches associated with the shots to pump up your cell count…..but harvesting itself isn’t a terrible process. Now, if they have to actually do a true bone marrow extraction, that’s more painful.
Think about it folks…..I will leave the link here for ya!
Stronger Than A Fifth Of Whiskey 