Azile Ngubane just turned six on 5 September. A time that is meant to be joyous and filled with the wonder of discovery has been clouded by the angst of fighting a blood cancer that is threatening her young life.
Azile is described by her family as a young girl who loved attending school and never gave her mom any trouble with getting ready in the mornings.
In 2019, she started having pain in her joints and losing weight. Her parents at first took her to a general practitioner who then referred them to a specialist. It was there where they learnt that their only daughter was diagnosed with Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. “This was something that was very foreign to us, as we never believed that children could suffer from cancer,” said her mom Busiswa. “The whole family was shattered by the diagnosis,” added Busiswa. “We have to be strong and supportive for our daughter,” she continued.
Every 27 seconds someone somewhere in the world is diagnosed with a life-threatening blood disorder. A stem cell transplant from a matching donor is the only hope of a cure for many of these patients. Donor matches are based on genetics and are much more complex than matching blood types. There is a 1:100 000 chance of finding a match and there is only a 25% chance that a sibling could be a match. The remaining 75% chance is based on an unrelated matching donor being found. Azile makes the list of these many patients that are in need of a blood stem cell transplant. She, unfortunately, does not have siblings; this leaves her in a scramble to find a matching donor somewhere in South Africa or elsewhere in the world. Her treating specialist has requested a search for a matching donor and the result has not been successful.
Patients of colour are at a distinct disadvantage due to the low number of registered donors from black, coloured and Indian population groups in the global donor database. In order to give patients like Azile the best chance at life, it is vital to grow an ethnically diverse registry of donors in South Africa.
The Sunflower Fund, partnered by DKMS creates education and awareness about the need for stem cell donors, as well as recruiting donors and building a registry of donors committed to helping anyone for whom they might be a match.
“We plead with all South Africans who are eligible to come forward and become blood stem cell donors, not only to help our child but to help other children that are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases as well,” concluded Busiswa.
If you are between the ages of 18 and 55 years, with a BMI of less than 40 and a consistent bodyweight of over 50kg you could be eligible to become a stem cell donor.
For more information or to register, visit www.sunflowerfund.org or call 0800 12 10 82. Be the hope, you could be the perfect match Azile is searching for.