Give the best Valentine’s gift of all
Stem cell donation from a stranger offers hope for another chance at life
It was just by chance that Heather King’s husband was home for lunch when she received the call they had been praying for. The news that a stem cell donor had been found for Heather left her and Paul — and his parents, Bernice and Harrison King, visiting from Bloomfield, Bonavista Bay — literally jumping for joy.
“We started dancing around. It was great news,” 40-year-old King said during a phone interview Saturday from her home in Upper Gullies.
After receiving that call on Jan. 30, King’s next call was to her parents.
Her dad, Clyde Vincent, was having lunch with a friend at Fog City. King called the restaurant and asked them to find him for her. “He started crying on the phone,” she says. Her mom, Jean Vincent, was deep into a bridge game at the St. John’s Re/Max Centre when she was told she was wanted on the phone. There were more tears. King was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1999 at age 27. Radiation kept the cancer at bay for several years.
When it returned in 2004, King was told she’d need a stem cell transplant. Her father proved to be a match and the transplant took place on Nov. 11, 2004 and gave King eight years of great health.
When she began feeling tired in September 2012, she had no idea that a different type of cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was attacking her body.
King spent almost four months in hospital undergoing chemotherapy.
Her mother said last Christmas was one her family won’t soon forget.
“Paul was there, of course. And my daughter Jennifer (Vincent) and her partner (Scott Gearin) and my little grandbaby, who is a year old, little Bella — they came down from Ottawa. … I cooked all our meals and we had Christmas in the Health Sciences Centre. Heather was too sick to get out of bed Christmas Day so we all went to her room and had our meal,” Vincent, a retired nurse, said during an interview at her home on Saturday.
She’s always been aware that others are keeping her daughter alive through blood donations.
Every time a nurse hung a bag of blood for her daughter, Vincent said she’d place her hand on the bag and say a prayer.
“I’d say, ‘God bless the person who gave this blood. May you never know a day’s sickness in your life.’”
King is now recovering at home. Her stem cell transplant will take place in Halifax, but not until the end of March or later.
Physically, she feels fine. Emotionally, not so good.
“It’s really difficult for me this time compared to the last time I had a stem cell transplant. I am way more afraid of the outcome,” she said. “I’m trying to get myself back in that mode where you are going to win and not even think about the bad possibilities.”
The transplant gives King what she needs right now — hope.
“They can possibly cure the disease even though it’s risky. … It will be difficult, but it is something that can make me live longer. And I certainly want that. I have so much to live for.”
Canadian Blood Services public affairs manager Paul McGrath says stem cell transplants are used to treat a variety of illnesses, including leukemia, lymphoma and inherited immune system disorders.
There are about 1,000 Canadians searching for a stem cell donor. Fewer than 30 per cent of patients find a match within their immediate family.
That’s where Canadian Blood Services’ OneMatch stem cell and marrow network comes in, McGrath says.
“With a potential stem cell donor network of over 330,000 healthy and committed Canadian volunteers, OneMatch will also search over 20 million potential stem cell donors in 49 countries for people like Heather in need of a stem cell transplant.”
Vincent worked for Canadian Blood Services for almost two decades and she’s trying to raise the awareness about the importance of people putting their names forward as stem cell donors. Her daughter has found a match, she said, but there are still hundreds of others who haven’t yet been that fortunate.
Thanks to Vincent’s initiative, Canadian Blood Services is holding “honour clinics” in St. John’s, Corner Brook and Grand FallsWindsor on Valentine’s Day in King’s name.
King said she’s grateful to her husband and both sides of their families for supporting her throughout her cancer battle.
“They’ve been with me through it all,” she said.
She wouldn’t be alive, she said, without the blood and blood products she’s received nor the stem cell transplant from her father.
Now, she said, someone she doesn’t know has given her another chance at life.
“I haven’t counted how many blood transfusions I’ve had. … (The donors) are people who are taking time out of their day to go into a clinic and let somebody put a needle in their arm to save my life, because if the blood wasn’t there I’d be gone. Now, somebody in the world is good enough to give me their stem cells. I am just so, so thankful.”