Gebbie Hou has survived leukemia once. Now she is fighting it again.
But this time she needs a stem cell transplant to survive.
The problem – her family members are not matches, which means she must rely on the kindness of strangers to find a donor.
The Other Half Chinese Stem Cell Initiative is a not-for-profit charitable organization that helps raise awareness in the Chinese-Canadian community and holds stem cell drives to get more potential donors on the registry. In the last 10 years they have helped to increase the number of Chinese donors on the registry from 2,000 to 25,000. But still the odds are not as good as they could be.
“For a Caucasian who is looking for a match in Canada there is an 80 per cent chance of finding a match whereas for a minority, Chinese, or mixed race have about a 20 per cent chance of finding a match in Canada,” Mandy Pui of The Other Half Chinese Stem Cell Initiative said.
The process of being registered takes about 10 minutes and involves rubbing a cotton swab inside your mouth.
The chance of being a match is low – just 1 in 750,000. But if you are lucky enough to match someone in need, chances are you will only be asked to give stem cells through a blood transfusion.
To find out more about future stem cell drives, visit the Save Gebbie Facebook page.
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