Westville residents showed-up in large numbers to help one of their own and those in need of a bone marrow transplant as they got involved in a donor drive held at Westville Senior Primary School on Wednesday, 22 June.
A few weeks ago, Westville Senior Primary School appealed to the community to help Grade 5 learner, Syamthanda Nxasana who needs a urgent transplant after she was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2021.
The school in partnership with the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) held a Donor Drive which received a huge response from the Westville community and they are hopeful that Symthanda will find a match.
Educator and Acting Department Head, Peta Mumford said that the drive exceeded all their expectations due to the influx of community members and learners who came for swabs tests.
“The community of Westville really came out to show their support for Syamthanda and her family. Westville Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools both sent learners to come and be tested and we had teachers from Westville Junior Primary and Saturn Pre-Primary come to support. We had so many people come through that we ran out of test kits and SABMR had to go out to get more. Even the ones that were fetched ran out and SABMR had to courier more down from Johannesburg and deliver to the school the next day. It is the biggest drive they have had in three years in KZN. In three to four weeks, they should know if a match has been found, but even if a match isn’t found for Sya we have so many people who have signed up to be a donor that there are many other lives that could now be saved. It was a very special day. We pray and hope that we can find a match for brave Syamthanda,” said Mumford.
SABMR KZN’s Sustainability and Donor Recruitment Coordinator, Kapil Premchand said that the donor drive held was possibly one of the biggest drives in KZN.
“The drive was excellent. We received an overwhelming response of parents, educators and students wanting to swab for Syamthanda. It’s hard to determine at this point to know if there is a match as swabs need to be checked and sent to the lab for testing but we remain hopeful during this time and appreciate the support that we’ve seen. If there isn’t a match from the drive done at Westville Senior Primary, there are also online applications as well as other drives conducted,” said Premchand.
Premchand also encouraged others to register as donors as this will help those in need especially considering the fact that being a match is determined by quite a number of things.
“In the same way as red cell blood groups exist, so white cells can be categorised into groups known as ‘tissue-types’. Many possible tissue types exist, so that finding the correct match depends upon having a very large register of volunteers. Although there are over 33 million donors registered worldwide some searches are still not successful. We conduct drives all the time at various places,” concluded Premchand.
Residents who would like to register can visit https://sabmr.co.za/become-a-donor/ and the swab kit will be posted to them.
