Saving Lives by Doing a Simple Thing

Saturday, June 22, 2013

I was really happy to learn that our son got a job offer in San Fransisco at a company he would really enjoy working. With springs in my steps, I went to my church to take part in the volunteer training for the Stem Cell Drive after talking to Er.

Patrick Chan - Our beloved Canadian World Figure Skating Champion is a Strong Supporter of the Stem Cell Initiative

The Stem Cell Swab Drive volunteer training session was two hours long and I learned a lot. For instance:

Many People Came and Gave a Sample of Their Cells for Timothy Lo

1. Finding a stem cell match for a patient is not an easy task.

  The chance of finding a match is 1 out of 20,000. As a result, there needs to be a huge number of donors.

A Donor Hero Gave His Cells and Saved a Life!

2. There are a lot of people currently waiting for stem cell donation so that their diseases could be cured. Unfortunately, there is a huge lack of donors, especially among ethnic groups such as Chinese Canadians.

3. The best donors are people aged 17 - 35, especially males.

Many people are afraid of donating stem cells because they have the misconception that it would be a painful and complicated process. While stem cell donors need to be aware that if your stem cell is a match for a patient, you do need to commit sometime to the process. However,  the process itself can be as simple as donating blood.

Giving a Sample of Your Cells is Easy - Just Take a Q Tip and Swab the Inside of Your Cheeks for 20 Seconds

The Stem Cell Booths were opened that afternoon from 3 -6p.m. for people to give a swab sample of their inner cheek cells. I was glad to see that there were people, mostly young people coming in steadily throughout the whole afternoon to give a swab sample of their cells.

The Swab Samples are Placed in an Collection Envelop for Testing

Many people came because they heard about Steven Lo - a young man of 24 years old  struck with a very serious case of leukemia suddenly. He has gone through chemotherapy but is not getting any better nor is his body able to produce any immunity to defend itself against diseases.

One Match and Other Half really hope that by educating the public and reaching out to the community, they can get more donors out to do swab samples.

There are a number of events planned during the summer in the Toronto area and I pray and sincerely hope that a stem cell match can be found soon for Steven and other patients like him waiting for stem cell transplants.

R.T.
Toronto