Kenyans Plan Huge Blood Drive After Burial of a Mother
Kenyans attend the burial of the late Teresia Wambui Wa-Nguyaii, a mother who passed away recently from cancer complications, leaving behind a husband who is suffering from cancer of the blood ( Leukemia).The Kenyan community has planned a massive bone marrow drive to take place on Sunday this week in serach of a miracle match that may save the husbands's life. H.Maina/Ajabu
by Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted January 3, 2011
NASHUA, NH, As Kenyans in New England converged in Nashua, NH to pay their last respects to a mother of one who passed away two weeks ago of liver cancer, an effort to create a community safety net against blood cancer (Leukemia) has been put in high gear with a bone marrow donation drive slated to take place at the PCEA Ushindi church on Sunday this week.
The planned bone marrow bank within the Kenyan community in New England with determined community members are organizing the drive.
The bone marrow bank effort is funded by the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston in an effort to intensify the search for a matching bone marrow donor to save the life of Stanley Nguyaii Wa- Mbarrii, a Kenyan who is suffering from an acute case of blood cancer.
Mbarrii’s case has saddened the Kenyan community in the USA since his wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer in January this year and lost the battle two weeks ago to liver cancer.
Teresiah was buried last week in Nashua, New Hampshire in a ceremony attended by over 500 Kenyans from all walks of life.
During the funeral, speaker after speaker urged Kenyans to turn out in large numbers next week for the bone marrow drive in order to save the life of the ailing husband who was left behind together with two children.
A similar bone marrow drive held at the saint Stephens’ church back in September this year in which about 150 Kenyans attended failed to generate a matching donor hence the need for a relentless effort to seek a miracle match.
According to medicineet.org, Leukemia is cancer that starts in the tissue that forms blood. In a human body, blood is formed by cells (stem cells) found in the bone marrow, which is the soft material in the center of most bones.
Nguyaii Wa-Mbarii together with his two children, Rebecca Mbarii and Wilson Mbarii during a memorial service prior to the burial of his late wife in Nashua, NH
Usually, these stem cells mature into different kinds of blood cells namely the white blood cells, red blood cells and the blood platelets, with each having a different function in the body. When cells grow old or get damaged, they die and new cells take their place.
However, in a person with leukemia, the bone marrow makes abnormal white blood cells. Unlike normal blood cells, these abnormal white blood cells (leukemia cells) don't die when they should. This makes it hard for normal blood cells to do their work for fighting diseases, carrying oxygen and helping blood clot when necessary.
Among the most mentioned causes of blood cancer include radiation especially with people exposed to high levels of radiation e.g. from an atomic bomb explosion, radiation therapy like when patients undergo high levels of radiation in medical treatment for cancer and other conditions, Diagnostic x-rays like when people undergo Dental x-rays and other diagnostic x-rays (such as CT scans ), which exposes them to much lower levels of radiation.
However, it’s not known yet whether this low level of radiation to children or adults is linked to leukemia.
Other possible risk factors include smoking cigarettes, exposure to benzene in the workplace, chemotherapy, Down syndrome, family history of leukemia, among others.
However, having one or more risk factors does not mean that a person will get leukemia. Most people who have risk factors never develop the disease.
Some patients with blood cancer like in Nguyaii’s case need to receive a stem cell transplant which can lead to healing. Stem cell transplant allows a person to be treated with high doses of drugs, radiation or both. The high doses destroy both leukemia cells and normal blood cells in the bone marrow.
After you receive high-dose chemotherapy, radiation therapy or both, you then receive healthy stem cells through a large vein. (It's like getting a blood transfusion.) New blood cells develop from the transplanted stem cells. The new blood cells replace the ones that were destroyed by treatment.
The biggest challenge with this promising method of treatment is the availability of the stem cells. The cells may come from you or from someone who donates their stem cells to you. When your own cells can not work, doctors have to rely on a healthy cell match from a family member, like a brother, sister, a parent or an identical twin. Sometimes matching stem cells come from a donor who isn’t related to you at all.
And that is where the rubber meets the road in the Kenyan and African community in the USA.
In the USA, over 35,000 people are diagnosed with Leukemia and other life threatening blood diseases for which transplant may be their only hope.
Kenyan nurses( left) prepare swabs and paperwork for well wishers who came for a bone marrow drive held at the St. Stephens church in Lowell last summer.The drive did not generate a matching donor for Ngyyaii Wa-Mbarii, hence the call for more testing.
But to receive a transplant, they must find a matching donor .Only 30% of patients find a matching donor within their own families .The other 70% search a world wide database of unrelated donors looking for a miracle match.
While most of the Caucasian folks in the Western world have developed huge bone marrow banks that hold the said stem cells thereby increasing the odds of an ailing patient to get a miracle match, the case is not the same with Kenyans and African immigrants in America.
Experts said that the miracle matches occur mostly when people from the same genetic background like race, pool together and create a bank of bone marrow cells, an area where the African race has been left way behind, making it more challenging to cure patients from this group.
“The concept of a bone marrow bank has never been heard in our community, so it becomes very difficult for one of us to get a match when they fall sick with blood cancer,” said Alice Morrison, a Kenyan nurse who has been working with cancer patients at the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston for over 10 years.
AliceMorrison
Morrison, who met Nguyaii at the hospital while undergoing treatment, added that lack of correct information among many Kenyans also complicate the new efforts of testing as many people as possible to increase the chances of getting a matching donor in order to save the life of Nguyaii because many people imagine that volunteering to donate bone marrow means an invasive procedure where your actual bone will be penetrated to draw the stuff inside the bone.
“Nothing can be further than the truth here. The procedure is a very simple swab of the mouth to collect some tissue that doctors will then put under scientific test to locate a match with a patient’s sample,” said Morrison while speaking to Ajabu Africa News.
She added that even in the case that we do not immediately identify a donor match for the ailing father of two in Nashua, the collected cells will be stored in a bank from which Kenyan immigrants or other Africans who may fall sick can benefit.
“You never know whose life you could save by attending such a ground breaking bone marrow drive,” said Morrison, a dedicated nurse and a mother of two.
A Kenyan man takes mouth swab used for bone marrow donation testing during a drive held at the St. Stephens church in Lowell last summer.The drive did not generate a matching donor for Ngyyaii Wa-Mbarii, hence the call for more testing.
According to Kariuki Kimungu, Dana Faber Cancer Institute is funding the bone marrow collection efforts at the Ushindi church next Sunday by providing testing kits and personnel.
He asked as many Kenyans as possible to turn out for the event, which will only be the start of an ongoing effort to build a bone marrow databank for the benefit of African immigrants in America in the fight against blood cancer.
Kimungu also said that the committee overseeing the effort also wants to have the extended family of Nguyaii from his rural home of Kairi Village in Thika District also tested for a possible match.
“We can not rest until we find a match for Nguyaii. I still believe it is possible to save his life especially after his wife passed away and now he is left alone with two children.”
He said that although Dana Faber Institute has agreed to fund the expensive kits and personnel to collect the bone marrow cells here in the US, and the already completed testing of the immediate family members back in Kenya, they are not able to do that for the extended family in Kenya.
He hoped that some other donors may come forward and help purchase the testing kits that go for about $175 a kit.
He also appealed to Kenyans involved in the medical field to come forward and help in any way they can especially during the actual day of the highly awaited event.
Staff from the Dana Faber cancer institute in Boston assist two Kenyan men take a bone marrow donation mouth swab during a drive held at the St. Stephens church in Lowell last summer.The drive did nto generate a matching donor for Ngyyaii Wa-Mbarii, hence the call for more testing.
“If you know institutions like hospitals or other companies that may be willing to help fund the testing and building of an African bone marrow bank, please talk to them and bring them to us,” pleaded the chairman.
Asked what he feels about the big efforts underway to locate a matching donor who could end up saving his life after he lost his wife to cancer, the ailing father said that he was overwhelmed by the huge response by Kenyans ever since tragedy befell his family at the start of the year till the death of his wife and the actual effort to get a donor for him.
“I can’t thank Kenyans enough for what they have done and are still doing for us”. They have shown us a lot of love and I am just overwhelmed that so many people can come and help me when I am in a lot of trouble,” he said.
He added that he hopes many more Kenyans will come to the bone marrow drive at the Ushindi church on January 9th.
“I will keep fighting on for the sake of my children and hopefully, get a matching donor and also help in developing bone marrow bank for the sake of other Kenyans who may be unfortunate like me to get the disease,” he told Ajabu Africa.
The event will kick off at 1pm on Sunday January 9th and end at 6pm.
If you are a Kenyan or an African from any country and residing in New England , please attend the bone marrwo testing this sunday and help ctreate the first ever African bone marrrow bank in the USA.This could save your own life or that of a loved one in future.
Be the Match. Welcome!
PCEA Ushindi community church is located on 452 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, MA, 01851.
