Plea for stem cell donors to help little ballet dreamer, aged 4
SHE dreams of being a ballet dancer, but Siphiwokuhle Nkosi needs the public’s support to help her reach the age to be able to fulfil her dream.
In January, the brave 4-year-old came down with several fevers, then what seemed like allergies and asthma.
Her grandmother, whom she lives with at eSikhawini near Richard’s Bay, took her to the doctor to find out what was causing her ill health.
Siphiwokuhle’s mom, Simpiwe Nkosi, said when the results of her medical tests came back, their lives changed forever.
The medical results showed that Siphiwokuhle had acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a type of blood and bone marrow cancer.
“When I was informed about the diagnosis, my entire world came to a standstill. She is my only child and it was a massive shock,” said Nkosi, who works as ground support at OR Tambo International Airport.
Now, DKMS Africa, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders, has encouraged South Africans to help save Siphiwokuhle’s life and register as blood stem cell donors.
The organisation’s Nockey Mkhize said they had already started an online donor drive for her, and an in-person drive would be held later.
DKMS Africa said 68% of children under the age of 15 who have AML survive for at least five years after their
diagnosis, and so a blood stem cell transplant is crucial for increasing Siphiwokuhle’s longevity.
Mkhize said Siphiwokuhle had shown tremendous bravery through all her chemotherapy treatments. While her health appeared to be stable at the moment, she was still required to go to hospital for regular check-ups.
She said it was a tissue match that they were searching for. This was different from being a blood donor, where you only need have the same blood type as the person who receives the donation.
Registering to be a donor was a painless process, she said, and there was no “drilling into the bone” which was one of the questions they were always asked, said Mkhize. “There’s a 25% chance of you finding a donor in your family and 75% chance of finding a match with an unrelated donor completely unknown to you,” she said.
Recently, a woman in Poland became a donor to a girl of 14 in Cape Town, she said, because even siblings with the same parents only fall within the 25% range match.
Donor ethnicity was also important, because a matching donor was almost always found within the same ethnic group as a patient, but this could change if the donor or patient was mixed race.
“This is why we need to ensure that our donor registry is as diverse as possible to give every patient a chance of finding a match.”
Mkhize said the minimum donor age limit had recently dropped from 18 years to 17 years. In KwaZulu-Natal, DKMS Africa had started a campaign at high schools to educate pupils about blood disorders and stem cell donations, so they knew what the symptoms were.
They also aim to encourage them to become donors once they go to university, to help patients like little Siphiwokuhle. The first school they addressed was St Henry’s Marist College in Glenwood, she said.
“We are excited about this school project, because we believe it will make a huge impact,” Mkhize said.
Any schools or other organisations interested in becoming involved can email sbonele.dubazana@dkms-africa. org