July 25, 2009

Steve Pho is fighting for his life at Princess Margaret hospital.

The 23-year-old York University student, who has been suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) for three years, now has an infection to worry about.

Pho is currently undergoing chemotherapy, but his only chance of survival is to find a bone marrow match.

"He's really sick right now. He's in a lot of pain from an infection. His whole left side is swollen and bruised because his platelets are so low," said Pho's sister, Maureen.

ALL is a type of cancer that causes an overproduction of immature white blood cells that form rapidly from bone marrow. These abnormal cells cannot fight infections and swarm normal blood cells needed to treat disease.

"My brother's only 23 years old and he has a long life left to live if someone would give him that chance. Chemotherapy won't give him lasting remission. His only hope is a bone marrow transplant," Maureen said.

Family members and friends have been tested, but no match has been found. His best chances of finding a match would come from someone of Chinese-Vietnamese heritage.

"We're asking people to find it in their hearts to help save a life and get tested and let the Asian community know there's many people who need their help and are looking for bone marrow matches," Maureen said.

One Match Stem Cell and Marrow Network and The Otherhalf Chinese Stem Cell Initiative will hold a donor drive for people between the ages of 17 and 50 tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church on Kennedy Rd. For information, visit chinesestemcell.ca.

Meanwhile, the Better World Today Association is holding its annual Camp 4 Compassion today and tomorrow in Wheatley for families seeking bone marrow matches.

For information, go to camp4compassion.com.

SHARON. LEM@SUNMEDIA.CA
 

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/07/25/10258091-sun.html

June 30, 2009

Crystal Collard Donating another $50.00 she made from a Bake Sale at Leamington District  High School...
 

Thank You Crystal!

Logan Moore needs our help...

Logan is 5 year old boy and the son of a Windsor Ontario Firefighter. He has leukemia and will eventually need a bone marrow transplant. Please share this with everyone because it will help get the word out about the registry. In Canada go to www.onematch.ca and US go to www.marrow.org

He was the ambassador of Camp 4 Compassion put on by Better World Today Association.  It is a weekend of entertainment for the whole family.

Gary Rennie, The Windsor Star
Published: Sunday, July 20, 2008
LEAMINGTON -- "What do you say to the person who saved your life?"

That question has been haunting Belle River's Chris LoDuca for almost three years -- ever since he received a life-saving stem cell transplant from an unknown donor.

This weekend, the Chrysler worker and father of two young boys got the surprise of his life.

The Better World Today Association found LoDuca's donor in Germany and flew him to Canada.

With the co-operation of LoDuca's wife Pam, it was kept a surprise until the annual Camp 4 Compassion on a farm near Leamington that promotes awareness of the worldwide blood and bone marrow donation registry.

LoDuca was told he had to be there for a belated 40th birthday party.

Instead, he came face-to-face with Manuel Raisch, a tall, bearded 27-year-old theology student from Wiesenbach who spoke little English.

"I was in complete shock," said LoDuca. "I was overwhelmed."

"Sitting next to me is a real hero," he said.

How many ways can you say thank-you? LoDuca can tell you all about that now.

The tears quietly streaming down his wife's face perhaps said it best.

Diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2003, LoDuca was perhaps days away from death when the stem cell transplant was finally done in a Hamilton hospital Sept. 29, 2005.

He'd been waiting for a match with a donor for about a year.

Even with the transplant, "they weren't sure I was going to make it," said LoDuca. He found out later doctors rated his chances for survival at only five per cent.

One of the complications in his recovery was an unknown allergy to cyclosporin, one of the primary drugs used to prevent rejection of the stem cells.

The procedure to remove the stem cells from Raisch was probably more painful that the one that transfused them into LoDuca.

Speaking through interpreter Jennifer Ringeling, Raisch said his arms were bruised and sore for several weeks after the extraction procedure in an Ulm medical centre.

Drugs were introduced into his blood to coax the stem cells out of his bone marrow. Then his blood was drawn from one arm, the stem cells harvested by machine, and his blood re-injected through the other arm. It was a five-hour ordeal, Raisch recalled.

The refrigerated, two-liter bag of stem cells was then flown to Hamilton.

The preparation for the waiting LoDuca included a high dose of chemotherapy to kill the remaining stem cells in his bone marrow.

Raisch's stem cells headed right to the empty bone marrow to help rebuild his immune system, LoDuca said. His leukemia is in remission now.

Meetings of recipients and donors aren't common even when both are agreeable.

Those who manage the worldwide donor registry system like to wait a few years to see how the recipient is doing before agreeing to links with the donor, LoDuca said.

It could prove devastating to a donor to learn later the recipient had died. Families of recipients might also have trouble relating to a donor whose gift of life proved unsuccessful for whatever reason, LoDuca said.

Raisch hopes to become a minister when his studies are complete. He went on the donor registry when he was working as a gardener and his employer's son needed a bone marrow transplant.

Ron Giles of the Better World Today Association says there are still too few donors in the registry, particularly from ethnic groups in this area.

The weekend festival in Leamington was expected to draw some 2,000 people to entertainment, a car show, fashion show and dancing.

The association's goal was to spread the message about signing up for the donor registry.

While there are happy endings like that of LoDuca to spread the word, sadly others have not been so fortunate.

Windsor's Uzoma Azuh, then a 22-year-old medical student, died a year ago of leukemia still waiting for a donor to be found.

For more information about being a donor visit www.bloodservices.ca

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=6357db19-4884-4097-b625-b658b3e53304

Jul 21, 2008 ... an annual event put on by his Better World Today Association to increase awareness about the desperate need for bone marrow donors. ...  read more
 

Compassion is Camp’s Theme

The Windsor Star ~ 17 Jul 2008

The Better World Association is hosting its annual Camp 4 Compassion this weekend in an effort to promote awareness about bone marrow donation and the national bone marrow registry.

Camp 4 Compassion is a camping weekend for the whole family that features live entertainment, a car show, a fashion show, dancing and other events.

Local cancer and leukemia patients who need bone marrow transplants will participate and the organizers, Ron and Frank Giles, will use the opportunity to educate others about the importance of being on the bone marrow registry.

The camp is located at 708 County Road 34 in Leamington.

Opening ceremonies are Friday at 7 p.m. The camping fee is $20 per night or $30 for the entire weekend, with a maximum of six campers per site. Spaces are limited as more than 5,000 people are expected to attend this year.

For those who don’t plan on spending the night, day passes to Camp 4 Compassion are free. For more information or to register, visit www.camp4compassion.com.