A record number of swabs were collected in a One Match donor drive to find a bone marrow match for an 8-year-old Regina boy.
Hundreds walked through the doors at the Co-Operators Centre on Saturday, to see if they can help Vonn Chorneyko.
The child is one of 30 people in Canada with fanconi anemia – a rare blood disorder.
This is the third bone marrow drive organized for him in the past two years.
But so far none of the millions of donors in the world registry are a perfect match.
By 5:00 p.m. on Saturday the drive had already collected more swabs than any other single event in Canada.
The final tally reached more than 2900 swabs – exceeding the initial goal of 3,000.
Everyone who showed up for the bone marrow drive will be registered for the Canadian Blood Services one match program.
The program is part of an international database of more than 23 million donors of stem cell and bone marrow.
Stem cell transplants are used to treat a variety of diseases and disorders including things like leukemia.
At any given time in Canada, around 1,000 people are in need of a match but only about half will actually find one.
Canadian Blood Services say events like Saturday’s donor drive are important in getting more people registered.
with files from Global news’ Katelyn Wilson
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