Australian family mount a desperate search for a Scottish bone marrow donor
A father-of-three from Australia with a rare form of leukaemia is seeking a lifesaving bone marrow transplant from a donor with Scottish-italian heritage.
Gennaro Rapinese, who’s father Nick is Italian, can trace his great grandparents on his mother’s side back to Scotland with one of them originally from Dalkeith in Midlothian.
The 39-year-old needs to trace a donor for an urgent transplant with similar racial and ethnic heritage as bone marrow is based on genetics not blood type.
The highest likelihood of finding a match is within the same ethnic group.
Mr Rapinese who lives in the Australian city of Perth, was first diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) in 2015 when a routine blood test revealed leukaemic blasts in his blood cells.
He underwent months of gruelling chemotherapy and went into remission at the start of 2016 – only for the cancer to return in February this year.
Mr Rapinese, whose wife Joanne gave birth to Nicolas aged two, when he was in remission, has found no-one in Australia who is a right match – including his three sisters.
He also has two daughters, Mia aged seven and six-yearold Stella.
The bone marrow register is worldwide and he is now appealing to people with Scottish-italian heritage to give blood in the hope that this can lead to him finding a suitable bone marrow donor.
Mr Rapinese told the Scotsmanhowhereactedonfinding out the cancer had returned.
He said: “I pretty much collapsed on the kitchen floor.
“I know that this time is more serious and I have to have the bone marrow transplant.
“My immune system does not work and if I don’t find a match then I am a dead man walking.
“The match is all about the DNA. My mother’s parents were of Scottish descent and my father is Italian.
“For the donor it is as easy as giving blood.
“You don’t have to be a fireman, policeman or doctor to be a lifesaver.
“The match is all about the DNA. My mother’s parents were of Scottish descent and myfatherisitalian. For the donor it is as easy as giving blood”