THE eve of International Mandela Day saw the Germany-founded non-profit organisation DKMS Africa hosting a blood cancer awareness initiative as well as a drive towards increasing the stem cell donor registry for patients of African ancestry who face difficulty in finding matching donors, at Maponya Mall.
Operating through the slogan, We Delete Blood Cancer, DKMS Africa’s road campaign – one of regularly-held ones – focused on educating the Soweto attendees regarding the early detection of blood cancer in order to save lives.
The attendees were people from various walks of life and included Gauteng Department of Health representatives and many traditional healers from around diverse Gauteng locations.
One of the notable speakers featured on the day’s programme Dr Thandeka Ngcana, a paediatric neuro-oncologist from Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, informed attendees on how to learn the signs and symptoms of blood cancer.
“Symptoms such as persistent fatigue, recurring infections, unexplained bruising or bleeding, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fevers or night sweats should not be ignored,” advised Ngcana, adding, “when something does not feel right, it is always better to seek medical advice than to wait.”
Two mothers, Weziwe Lubambo and Salome Phetla, whose children are survivors of the disorder through benefitting from transplants initiated by DKMS, related stories of their experiences.
Phetla, whose 15 year old son Keamogetswe was present, acknowledged how the entity’s support made a life-saving intervention in her child’s still young life: “Today my child has survived blood cancer and we are deeply grateful for the second chance we have been given.”
In an interview shortly after he’d been introduced to the audience onstage by his mother, the Grade 8 teenager who’d been sick for four years before coming into DKMS’ purview, affirmed that he was now strong enough to kick about a football around his home in Riverside View.
Pending proceedings which also involved volunteers undergoing the registry process of having cheek swabs taken and blood drawn (which forms part of the Apheresis process) as an initial step towards determining whether they’d turnout to be ultimate matches, DKMS’s Gauteng Regional Manager Kedibone Zulu lamented the lop-sidedness of there being few potential donors.
Zulu’s concern was attested by a colleague of hers when he put into perspective the challenge the entity faces contextualized through the reality of the likelihood of a patient finding a matching donor being 1 among 100 000.
About DKMS
Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei – meaning German Bone Marrow Donor Centre – is an international NPO founded in Germany in 1991 by Dr. Peter Harf after he lost his wife to leukaemia and vowed to improve patients’ chances of finding matching donors.
Dedicated to fighting life-threatening disorders such as blood cancer, its modus operandi entails recruiting volunteers to join a global stem cell donor registry and assisting matching patients with unrelated stem cell donors around the world.
It funds and supports patients and their families throughout the transplant experience. It facilitates in increasing the number and diversity of registered stem cell donors – thereby improving the chances of patients finding compatible donors.
DKMS’ research unit focuses on continually improving the survival and recovery rate of patients.
According to a media release provided by a publicist of the drive, DKMS has over 13 million donors from whom it succeeded more than 115 000 times towards the provision of blood stem cell donations to patients – thus making it a global leader in the facilitation of unrelated blood stem cell transplants.
It is South Africa’s biggest and most diverse stem cell donor registry.
For more information, visit DKMS Africa’s website on https://www.dkms-africa.org
Image Jacob MAWELA (Salome Phetla limned patting her son Keamogetswe – a blood cancer survivor – on the shoulder during a DKMS Africa blood cancer awareness campaign at Maponya Mall.)
