Stem-cell donor ideal match for Chatham student
Family overjoyed at prospect procedure will turn tide in battle against leukemia
A Chatham family has received the news they have been praying for — a stem cell match has been found for Jocelyn McGlynn as she continues to battle acute myelomonocytic leukemia. McGlynn, 21, posted a video on Facebook Wednesday to share with her legion of supporters that a stem cell donor has been found. But before sharing the details, she said: “I just want to thank you so much for following my journey and not just following it, but for walking alongside me through it, and strengthening me. “Your thoughts, your prayers, your positivity, I can feel them every day,” she added.
The family has been overwhelmed by a huge outpouring of community support, which has included groups organizing blood donor and swab clinics in Chatham as well as in Windsor and London to register hundreds of young people as potential stem cell donors in support of Jocelyn. Noting she is in remission, according to her latest biopsy on Friday, Jocelyn said, “my better news is that they have found a 10-outof-10 perfect match for me. “So my stem cell transplant — or my new birthday — will be on Feb. 20.”
Jocelyn’s father, Peter McGlynn, said the donor, a 20-year-old person, has passed all the physicals and is willing to donate.
He added his daughter is “excited and happy ” and his wife Jacquelyn is “a very happy mom.”
The McGlynns are heading to the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Buffalo, N.Y., next week to prepare the Western University student to be admitted on Wednesday. She will undergo a process to prepare for the transplant, which involves having her immune system wiped out, so it can be built back up with new, healthy stem cells. Although this ordeal has felt like a lifetime for the family, McGlynn said aside from having one of Jocelyn’s two brothers be a match, which would have been the quickest possible way for a transplant to happen, “this is following an ideal timeline.” He said the stem cell transplant procedure takes about 90 minutes. The donor, whose identity has not been divulged to the family, will receive drugs to inflate their number of white blood cells, he said. Afterwards, the donor will then have blood drawn from their body, which goes into a device to extract the stem cells. McGlynn said the harvested stem cells will then be “dripped” into Jocelyn’s veins. “Those stem cells find their way to her (bone) marrow and set up shop there, and then regenerate her immune system and start making white blood cells (for her),” he said. Being diagnosed with leukemia at the end of November 2018 has temporarily detoured Jocelyn’s plans to pursue a career as a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. She said she can’t believe the number of people who have participated in the blood donor and swab clinics.
A record 767 people registered during a recent three-day swab clinic organized by the Western Stem Cell Club, which was the largest stem cell drive ever by a university campus.
“It’s incredible, so thank you so much to everyone who’s helped make my bad news into something good,” she said. “I feel like we’re going to help a lot of people with that.”
Noting the efforts of family and friends, as well as strangers, has helped his family and inspired his daughter, Peter McGlynn said, “It’s just hard to say thanks when thanks isn’t enough.”
He added their friends from other communities “can’t believe what Chatham’s like ... it’s just amazing.”