In March this year, Fanele Memela, a six-year-old from Durban, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, but sadly none of her family members offer a viable bone marrow stem cell donor match. To find a suitable donor, the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) has activated a nationwide search and will be ramping up donor recruitment efforts to give her a second chance at life.
Fanele is currently undergoing chemotherapy until a matching donor is found and her mother, Gugu Mkhulisi, said that as a parent, all she wants to do is to help and protect her child, however, in this instance, there’s very little she can do and she has to rely on the generosity and goodwill of others.
Mkhulisi said: “It broke my heart when the doctors shared the news that none of us offered a good enough match. While this journey has been tough, it has opened my eyes to so much that I didn’t know. I have learned about the dire shortage of Black donors on the registry, which makes it so difficult for children like Fanele to get the help they need.”
According to the SABMR, Black donors make up a mere 10% of registered donors, which means that there is a slim chance of finding a match for Fanele and other children like her. Sustainability and Donor Recruitment Coordinator for SABMR, Kapil Premchand, said that a patient’s best chance of finding a match is within their own ethnic group.
He said the lack of donors of colour is not unique to South Africa and globally, there is a 27% chance of people of colour finding a match compared to that of Europeans who have a 70% chance of finding a comparable tissue match.
“It is for this reason that the SABMR is raising funds alongside the family to bolster donor recruitment efforts. Around 200 cases are referred to the SABMR annually and the goal is to eventually be able to assist every patient. Our mission is to save as many lives as possible. Often, we find ourselves in a position where there is no suitable match, as it is in Fanele’s case, but this doesn’t deter our efforts. With this campaign, we aim to raise R500 000 which will help to get as many Black donors as possible between the ages of 16 and 45 to sign up to the registry,” said Premchand.
Mkhulisi, who refers to her daughter as a superhero, said that Fanele has many things she aspires to and hopes that her daughter gets the second chance she wishes for. “Her future aspirations change as often as the weather. She has recently decided that she no longer wants to be a doctor (like me), but rather a singer. She loves her little brother who is six months old, and I would like for her to be around to spend many more years with him as they already share such a special bond.
“I am appealing to my fellow Black South Africans to become bone marrow stem cell donors. It only takes three minutes to sign up and if you’re a match, the stem cell donation process is very similar to giving blood and all the costs are covered by the registry,” said Mkhulisi.
For more information on how you can be a donor, contact SABMR on donors@sabmr.co.za.
