Looking for a donor of stem cells: “It is my life that is in the game now”

QMI agency

Saturday, December 23, 2017 18:26

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Saturday, December 23, 2017 18:26

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A mother of a family, achieving a rare cancer reviving its call for the population to find a donor of stem cells that could save her life.

Marie-Edith Boileau, a mother of three children, learned in late August that she is suffering from lymphoma, anaplastic T-cell, a rare form of bone cancer. The woman, a native of Haiti lies in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, but for a second time in a few months, she needs to be hospitalized at the Hospital of the Sacred Heart, Montreal.

He definitely need a stem cell donation to survive. In September, she had already launched a call for help, but no compatible donor was demonstrated. The mother of a family tries the kick again, hoping that this time, there is the person who can save her life.

“To me, it is my life that is in play currently,” says Ms. Boileau. It is important [to register]. As I say all the time, this is not just my life, but it is the lives of all the world in need.”

Ms. Boileau admits that spending the Holidays away from home, in a hospital, is far from being interesting.

“I find it difficult. They’re coming to see me for sure, but it is difficult, far away from them other. Christmas, it is important to spend it with family or with friends that you like.”

She implores the population to register in the registry of stem cell donors at Héma-Québec. There is currently 65 000 people in this list, but only 0.4 % of enrollees are part of the communities of african or caribbean descent.

To help Marie-Edith Boileau, it is imperative that the donor be from these communities, who are also under-represented in the statistics of Héma-Québec.