Mitesh needs our help! Please become a bone marrow donor.
1) Who is Mitesh Patel?
Mitesh is a 20 year old 2nd year university student who lives in London UK. He is the only son of Bina and Ketan Patel and older brother to Anjali. In 2007, Mitesh was diagnosed with B Cell Lymphoma; a type of cancer of the white blood cells. He is currently fighting a losing battle with chemotherapy and doctors have advised that a bone marrow transplant is his only hope for survival. So far, a suitable donor with matching bone marrow has not been located anywhere in the world. His extended family in India, Europe, Canada and USA has reached out to a network 58 international databases for a donor. The OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow program run by the Canadian Blood Services manages one of the listed databases.
2) Why should YOU be a part of this worthy cause?
The chances of finding a match in one’s own ethnic community are greater than in the general population as a whole. This means that it is important for each of us to build a healthy respository of marrow samples for the South Asian community. Canadian Blood Services has been working very hard to increase awareness for this cause in Canada’s ethnic communities. In the nine week period last fall compared to the same period in 2006, Canadian Blood Services recruited 341% more individuals under the age of 40, and 613% more individuals who identified themselves as other than Caucasian. This work was done through strategic recruitment through media and working with leaders of diverse communities to engage their members to be involved as registered donor. We are continuing to work with these leaders on an ongoing basis to engage even more potential donors. Currently, there are approximately 500 Canadians awaiting a bone marrow transplant.
3) How can you help Mitesh and GET INVOLVED?
RESPOND QUICKLY!
If you live in Canada, are between the ages of 17 and 50 and generally in good health, here is what you need to do to become a donor:
- You will receive an online confirmation of your application from Canadian Blood Services
- Canadian Blood Services will call you to confirm the documentation provided, answer any questions, confirm that you are medically eligible to join the program and finally to make arrangements to mail you a test kit.
- Canadian Blood Services will mail you a test kit. You can administer the swab test yourself at home and mail the sample back in a stamped envelope that will be provided. You do not need to go to a clinic!
- If you are pregnant, you and your newborn can also help!
If you live in the UK, please call the Anthony Nolan Trust at 0207-284-1234 or visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk.
They will mail you a test kit that you can take your medical clinic for testing.
If you live in the US, visit http://www.marrow.org to register as a donor
If you are pregnant, you and your newborn can also help by registering at www.cellsforlife.com in Canada or http://www.marrow.org in the US
Kindly forward this webpage to as many of your friends and networks as you can.
Please email Vaishali Joshi at vaishali@sanali.net when you register as a donor
Update: July 31, 2008
It is with great sadness that we inform you that Mitesh succumbed to his illness on Tuesday, July 29. His last chemo session was on Thur, July 24 and he did not fare well after that. On Sunday, July 27 he was put in comatose for a period of three days. During this time, his parents had to decide whether to take him off the respirator. He had spent the last 3 weeks in ICU trying to regain his strength and become stable enough for a transplant.
We are devastated and relieved at the same time – for he suffered so much in the last 6 months.
Mitesh's family has offered their sincere gratitude for all the attention and assistance you gave this matter. If not for Mitesh, you raised awareness for many others who are looking for bone marrow matches. Our efforts here in Toronto actually resulted in a high level match from Cells for Life at Markham Hospital. A detailed analysis in UK of the stem cell sample proved to not be good enough.
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