LOWELL, Mass. , AUGUST 21_ Members of the Kenyan community in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and the surrounding areas converge at the Saint Stephens’ church in Lowell, tomorrow, Sunday, August 22nd for simple mouth swabs to identify a matching donor in an effort to save the life of Stanley Nguyaii Wa-Mbarii, a colleague suffering from Leukemia or blood cancer
Nguyaii, a resident of Nashua, New Hampshire, was diagnosed with the disease early this year, shortly after his wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Consequently, the Kenyan community and friends in New England’s other states came together and raised about $50,000 in an effort to help the family cater for their accumulating domestic and treatment bill.
In the meantime, doctors at the Dana Faber Cancer Institute in Boston sent testing kits to Nguyaii’s home village in central Kenya to have his relatives tested for a match.
Unfortunately, none of them was found to match, prompting the search for the precious fluids of life to be extended to his Kenyan community in New England.
However, many Kenyans are still misinformed about the bone marrow donation effort; with many thinking it means it is an overly intrusive procedure.
But according to the chairman of the fund raising committee, who is also spearheading the bone marrow search effort, Kariuki Kimungu, donating bone marrow to save someone’s life means donating blood which will be used to replace the blood of the patient so that the patient can now start producing his own healthy blood cells.
Stanley Nguyaii
Speaking to Ajabu Africa News, Kimungu said that when he spoke to doctors treating Nguyaii, he came to learn that having a bone marrow bank is very crucial in saving the lives of people suffering from leukemia.
However, to save the life of a person, the bone marrow has to be taken from the person’s close relatives, or from people coming from his village, tribe, country or even continent.
“If a donor can’t be found from all the close people, then the search goes world wide, hoping for a miraculous match,” said Kimungu.
The available bone marrow bank in America has been donated by white folks and therefore Africans are at a large disadvantage for getting possible donor matches, making it imperative that Kenyans and Africans in general participate in building a donor bank by taking part in tomorrow’s bone marrow drive.
“We need to start contributing to this effort. No one in our community needs to die from leukemia if we have a chance of helping. It could actually save your own life if you ever got sick,” clarified the chairman who has worked tirelessly for this cause.
The event, that will kick off from 2pm, is eagerly awaited, with most people anxious to be tested, and in the process, join a bone marrow blood bank that could save their own lives too in case they ever got sick or if a loved one got sick.
According to Paul Muite, a friend of the family, who is also a director at the 3 Dimensions Health Services, a health career training institute in Dracut, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will conduct individual stem cell identification and collection within our community through the simple mouth swabs.
“This exercise will focus on increasing the diversity of tissue types available within our community and registering donors who are committed to helping any patient in need,” said Muite.
He added that the first step in stem cell collection involves HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) typing, which is a Collection of Human Leukocyte Antigen in the mouth by cotton swap.
A professional team from Dana-Farber will bring the required mouth swabs and a register to collect and record individual HLA. HLA are protein molecules we inherit from our parents.
“This will only take a few minutes of a donor’s time, so please plan to swing by and have your swab done,” said Kimungu while pleading for a large turnout.
Participation in this exercise will enable Kenyans to be registered with National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) which is an international nonprofit organization that maintains “The Match RegistrySM”, a registry of more than 7 million potential volunteer blood stem cell donors and more than 90,000 cord blood units.
Kimungu added that if a person ends up not matching with Nguyaii’s blood, then nothing extra is expected of them, but their sample will be stored in the bone marrow bank just in case someone in need ever ends up matching with them.
However, if a match that could save the patient’s life is found, the donor will undergo psychological counseling to make them comfortable with the process before blood is actually drawn from them if they decide to complete the process.
“I wish I will be the one to match. I will not hesitate to go the extra mile to save this life,” said Kimungu.
The NMDP has facilitated more than 35,000 transplants throughout the world for patients that do not have a match within their own family.
Your generosity as a bone marrow or stem cell donor could help a patient win his or her battle with cancer involving stem cell and bone marrow.
“Let us all join this worthy organization. You never know when you or one of our own may need assistance,” Muite pleaded.
Organizers hope that many Kenyans will attend the event for the benefit of Stanley Nguyaii and indeed the community at large.
Saint Stephens church is located at 279 West 6th street, in Lowell, Mass, 01850. Get directions
