A St. Albert girl suffering from a rare blood disorder has a lifeline after a bone marrow match was found.
Alex Pasichnyk, 12, is in Calgary to prepare for surgery to accept the bone marrow that matches on nine out of ten factors. The odds of finding a matching donor were estimated to be one in 14 million.
“It’s incredible,” said Heather Kemp, the family friend who has been acting as the Pasichnyks’ spokesperson over the last few months.
Her parents Lisa and Sheldon Pasichnyk are now in Calgary as Alex gets admitted into hospital in preparation for the transplant. That is the only centre in Alberta where these transplants are performed. The process involves chemotherapy and immunosuppressive therapies in order to help her body to accept the transplanted bone marrow.
After the procedure itself, she will likely remain in the hospital for another month, after which she will stay at the Ronald McDonald House while she builds up her strength. Her mother, Lisa, will stay with her for the duration.
Details of the girl’s illness were made public in the fall. Alex fell ill last June, and was diagnosed as being in complete bone marrow failure, the result of a rare aplastic anemia. She has required biweekly blood transfusions ever since, all the while the family held out the only hope of a cure starting with the long-shot of a matching donor.
A series of bone marrow donor drives in St. Albert and throughout the metropolitan Edmonton region helped to drum up support to the tune of more than 1,300 new registrants for the national OneMatch program.
“We couldn’t have made it this far without the love and support from all of you,” Lisa Pasichnyk wrote in a post on the ‘All in for Alex’ Facebook page.
“We’ve been completely overwhelmed at every single one of the bone marrow drives ... there’s been people waiting before we were even set up,” Kemp said, hoping that people continue to sign up. Anyone who is healthy and between the ages of 17 and 35 can visit www.OneMatch.ca to have a cheek swab kit mailed to them directly.
Alex’s story even made it to Poland, where it was used to promote a countrywide bone marrow donor drive. More than 23,000 people reportedly had their cheeks swabbed to be added to that country’s registry. The All in for Alex campaign hopes for a similar groundswell to continue across Canada. Kemp shared more good news that she knows of another person who OneMatch called up as a potential bone marrow donor because of the drives that were held in St. Albert.
“We still need people. We’re still encouraging people. There’s still between 800 and 1,000 in Canada alone that need a bone marrow match. We’ve said from the beginning that everybody who can register is great because there’s still people that need matches,” she said.
The Ron Hodgson car dealership on St. Albert Trail is hosting a new bone marrow drive at the end of the month. Employees there have also been selling toques as a fundraiser for the Pasichnyks while also supporting an Edmonton homeless shelter.
Kemp said that the family has been “completely overwhelmed” since the news has broken about the match. They have received many emails and phone calls, everyone wishing them well and hoping that the transplant goes smoothly.
A crowdfunding campaign, found at www.gofundme.com/allinforalex, was also established to help them cover their expenses. Lisa Pasichnyk has taken time off from her work as an ER nurse to care for Alex, leaving the family struggling with bills. The fundraising has since surpassed its goal of raising $7,500 and the public is still sending in its financial support to help out.
In the meantime, Kemp has organized a postcard campaign, asking the public to now mail their love and support to the Pasichnyks while they are in Calgary. The entire ordeal has been tough on the whole family, she said.
“Anything we can do to keep her spirits up while she’s in the hospital is great.”
The address for those postcards is RMHC Southern Alberta, Attention: Alex Pasichnyk family, 111 West Campus Place NW, Calgary, AB T3B 2R6.
