Amrit Hehar has never met Tegveer Minhas, but she’s putting in a lot of time this week to try to help save his life.
The 15-month-old boy from Brandon, Man. was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2016, just a few days after his first birthday.
His parents, Sukhbir and Dilpreet, spent the next two months with their son, getting treatment at the children’s hospital in Winnipeg.
“The chemotherapy worked well,” Sukhbir said, adding that with doctors now hoping to do a bone marrow transplant, “it’s the last resort to save somebody’s life.”
Hehar is trying to help by making the rounds at South Asian businesses in Calgary, distributing posters promoting a donor search.
“We’re going to host a bone marrow registry camp at the temple,” Hehar said, after learning about Tegveer’s struggle online.
“It takes a couple of minutes for a swab test that could possibly save this baby’s life,” Hehar added.
She’s appealing to those who would make the best match to attend the clinic, asking South Asians between the ages of 17 and 35 years old to come to the Dashmesh Culture Centre in northeast Calgary on Sunday, Jan. 15.
Hehar has a personal connection with donor searches.
“I have a really good friend who got diagnosed with kidney disease six or seven years ago and she’s still struggling to this day finding a donor,” she said. “So seeing this baby struggle so much, I want to help him as much as I could.”
Tegveer’s parents are very grateful for the help.
“It’s really motivating for us that people are coming forward that don’t even know us,” Dilpreet said. “And there are a lot of prayers that are coming our way.
“That gives us hope that he’s going to be fine; he’s going to be successful in his treatment.”
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