BURNABY (NEWS 1130) – The Canadian Blood Services is holding another stem cell drive at Byrne Creek Community School in Burnaby today to help raise awareness and possibly find a match for a little boy who desperately needs help.
Joshua Weekes is a six-year-old boy from Richmond who suffers from a rare and aggressive form of Leukemia but requires a unique ethnic match for a bone marrow transplant.
Trudi Goels with the agency says the school was chosen because of its multicultural population. “There are over 50 different ethnicities represented at Byrne Creek. The National Stem Cell Registry is in need of more people of various heritages.”
“Your match generally comes from your heritage and 25 per cent of patients will find a match in their family but 75 per cent rely on donors who are unrelated to them.”
Both of Joshua’s parents are of mixed ethnicity, so for Joshua to find an appropriate match, somebody with either Filipino, English, Icelandic or West Indian ethnicity needs to come forward.
The drive is open to the public and runs until 6:30 p.m.
