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Article: Aboriginal bone marrow donors needed
- Article from:
- Alberta Sweetgrass
- Article date:
- September 30, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Aboriginal Multi-Media Society Sep 30, 2000. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Aboriginal bone marrow donors needed
In Canada, there are four Aboriginal people waiting to find a compatible bone marrow donor for a transplant. One of them is Robert L'Hirondelle.
Robert is seven years old and was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia four years ago. After undergoing two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy, Robert's cancer went into remission, but it returned in June.
Robert is back in chemotherapy, but the best course of treatment for him now is a bone marrow transplant. Without it, his chances of survival are about 10 per cent. A transplant would increase those odds to 45 to 60 per cent.
A search of 6.5 million people on registries world-wide has failed to come ...