A New West resident is urging her community to step up and become potential stem cells donors in honour of her younger brother.
Amar Sohi has organized a stem cell drive on behalf of her brother, Avtar this Saturday (Jan. 14) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar (the Sikh temple) in Queensborough.
Twenty-four-year-old Avtar was diagnosed in September with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow.
In order for his disease to be cured, he needs a stem cell or bone marrow transplant.
People who need life-saving stem cells or marrow are more likely to find a match among donors of their own ethnic background, according to Canadian Blood Services, so Sohi is targeting the Queensborough event at members of the South Asian community between the ages of 17 and 35.
“DNAs connect to your ethnic heritage,” Canadian Blood Services’ Trudi Goels told the Record, “and that’s what this is, a DNA match between patient and donor. …It doesn’t mean that you’re always going to find someone directly from your ethnic heritage, but you are more likely to.”
Prospective donors have to be between 17 and 35 to register with Canadian Blood Services’ searchable OneMatch stem cell and marrow database, but they can be matched with a patient till age 60.
At a stem cell drive, would-be donors answer a few questions, fill out a questionnaire and provide a swab from the inside of their cheeks – the process takes about 10 minutes.
It’s time well spent, according to Sohi.
“If not for my brother, then for someone else,” she said. “If just one person finds a match through this, it’s more than we could have asked for.”
Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar is at 347 Wood St. in Queensborough.
For more information about Canadian Blood Services’ OneMatch stem cell and marrow network, visit www.blood.ca.
