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A blood cancer charity is renewing its calls for Portuguese and Madeiran stem cell donors after it emerged that another member of the community was in urgent need of a lifesaving DNA match – just one week after a Madeiran mother appealed for help for her “childhood sweetheart."
Osvalda Ferreira last week teamed up with the Anthony Nolan charity to urge islanders to register as stem cell donors because no DNA match could be found for her husband, Tony, who has Sézary syndrome, on the database of 670,000 individuals.
In an emotional appeal to save her husband, who she met aged just 14, she pleaded for islanders to come forward to provide the necessary stem cells to treat Tony’s illness and allow the couple to “grow old together.”
Now, just one week later, the charity said they have become aware of another desperate islander.
Despite not naming the person, Anthony Nolan revealed that the person, who is a member of the Portuguese community, was suffering from a particularly “aggressive” form of blood cancer, Leukaemia.
Pictured: Osvalda and Tony, her childhood sweetheart, who has a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Both islanders need to find someone with the same tissue type for a potentially lifesaving transplant to “replace and repair” their damaged cells. Often this will come from siblings or family members, but neither has found a successful match.
A special registration event is being held this weekend at St. Thomas’s Church Welcome Centre between 10:00 and 18:00.
Islanders of Portuguese and Madeiran descent aged 16 to 30 are particularly sought after, but the charity said that they would welcome other islanders too.
“Osvalda and Tony want to thank everyone for their support so far, and are hopeful for a large turnout at the weekend. As we are now also aware of a second patient in desperate need, we are imploring people to come forward. With neither patient having a match from their own siblings, widening the search to an unrelated donor gives the best possible chance of finding a match," Doreen Reed of the Jersey Friends of Anthony Nolan commented.
“Everyone is welcome, and particularly people of Madeiran and other Portuguese descent aged 16 to 30, as both Tony and the second patient are from this community. If you are not of Portuguese descent, do please come along too. Anthony Nolan is the only UK charity which finds and matches donors, of the correct tissue types, with patients who need stem cell transplants, so everyone is equally important to us. Although there are 670,000 individuals on the register, there is currently a shortage of stem cell donors from minority ethnic backgrounds on the Anthony Nolan register.”
Leading Consultant Haematologist and international expert, Dr Effie Liakopoulou, who is visiting at the General Hospital, added to these calls for help, stating that “stem cell donation is a gift of life.”
“Jersey has the second highest population of Madeirans in the world and this is a fantastic opportunity for Islanders to make a real difference to the lives of people with blood cancers in this community all over the world, not just in Jersey. Facilities and resources are not always available in other countries, and anyone joining the register will be making an international contribution to the worldwide fight against blood cancers,” she said.
“People who join the register are not donating for a single person. These ‘match unrelated donor transplants’ as they are known offer a potential lifeline for anyone and their families – just like Tony and Osvalda, and the other local family.”
People attending St Thomas’s Welcome Centre at the weekend will be asked to fill out a short medical form.
They will have two simple ‘cheek swabs’ taken - using what looks like a large cotton bud which is passed just inside both cheeks.
This is then sent off to Anthony Nolan UK who test all the samples.
Within around two weeks from it being received, people will receive an information pack and a card showing they’re part of the Anthony Nolan register.
Every time someone needs a transplant, Anthony Nolan check the register (and others in the UK and worldwide) to try and find a match.
If you are a potential match, the Charity will contact you directly and ask for a blood sample - which can be done at the General Hospital, in the newly refurbished Blood Donor Unit, which is soon to reopen, or by your GP.
Depending on the blood test, there then follows a measured process, led by Anthony Nolan, by which you could be able to donate stem cells - and save someone’s life.
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