‘I feel free.’ Woman cured of sickle cell

NO-BRAINER. I KNEW IF I WAS A MATCH, I’D JUST DO IT NO MATTER WHAT.

CALGARY • A 26-year-old Edmonton woman who received stem cells from her sister is believed to be the first Canadian adult to be virtually cured of sickle-cell anemia.

Revée Agyepong, 26, underwent the treatment at Calgary’s Tom Baker Cancer Centre, and blood tests confirm she no longer has the debilitating disease.

“I feel free,” said Agyepong. “It’s something I’ve dreamt about, prayed about and have been thinking about my entire life.”

Agyepong was born with sickle-cell anemia, a hereditary disease in which blood cells change into a sickle shape and block blood vessels, causing severe pain and a risk of stroke.

She even made a bucket list at a young age after initially reading that her life expectancy was 16 years. “I need to go to Disney. I was so serious,” she said.

Agyepong visited the emergency room five times in the seven months leading up to the stem cell transplant and has experienced chronic pain, a heart murmur, has had her gall bladder removed and her spleen no longer functions.

She has had to undergo a red blood cell exchange every eight weeks to manage her condition. It would take over three hours to exchange two litres of her blood with donor blood.

Stephanie Amoah, Agyepong’s sister, started looking at stem cell research studies being conducted in Maryland.

“It was a no-brainer,” she said. “I knew if I was a match, I’d just do it no matter what.”

Amoah had a 25-per-cent chance of being a match.

According to Dr. Andrew Daly, leader of Alberta’s bone marrow transplant program, it’s always better to have a donor from a matched sibling, otherwise there is a risk of serious complications.

Stem cell transplants have been performed successfully in children to treat sicklecell anemia since 2009, as children are more resilient. Studies on its success in adults with the condition only began in 2015.

“Before this, there was no real way of curing people,” said Daly.

He said there’s still a lot to do as, “we have a lot more patients with sickle-cell anemia than we do donors.”

Doctors decided Agyepong was a good candidate for the transplant.

“As it (the donated bone marrow) started going into my vein, I just started crying, because I was just so excited. I couldn’t believe it was happening,” said Agyepong.

“The fact that she (Amoah) gave me this incredible gift is mind-blowing.”