Many new mums will spend their days fretting over their child, wondering how or who their child will grow up to become. However, for new mum Kelly, she is now fighting to get the chance to watch her child grow up.
Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive blood cancer, Kelly is now undergoing chemotherapy and urgently needs a bone marrow transplant.
Unfortunately, there are currently no matches for Kelly on the international registries.
Her loved ones are now appealing to the public to sign up and join the Singapore Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) in the hope of not just finding a match for Kelly but many other patients like her.
Kelly’s family and friends set up an Instagram page, matchforkel, to urgently appeal to the public for help in finding a bone marrow match for her.
In an Instagram post on Saturday (9 Apr), they shared that Kelly had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive blood cancer.
She is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment, but she urgently needs a match for a bone marrow transplant.
Unfortunately, there are no matches for Kelly in the international registries right now. Her previous donor is no longer an option, and her siblings are also not full matches.
Ten years ago, Kelly miraculously recovered from lymphoma, cancer that affects immune system cells. This was only possible thanks to a match found on the international database of donors.
Kelly has led a full life in that decade, becoming a wife and a new mother.
The post wrote that she has always been a doting daughter, sister, and friend to all.
However, now, Kelly is in a similar situation as all those years ago, seeking a bone marrow transplant donor.
Her loved ones penned, “There is so much more to celebrate, and yet, much to lose if a donor is not found”.
With that, Kelly’s loved ones appealed for as many people as possible to sign up to join the Singapore BMDP.
Hopefully, they will then be able to find a suitable match for Kelly.
According to the post, the process can take up to 2 months. While they are working against the clock, they hold hope of finding Kelly’s match.
If you’d like to do your part and find out if you are a match, you can register as a donor on BMDP’s site here.
The Instagram post also broke down the simple process of signing up.
After registering, a cheek-swab sample kit will be mailed to your home. If you are a successful match, you will be contacted and briefed further.
Once you decide to proceed, your stem cells will be collected intravenously in an outpatient setting, much like how blood donations are done.
The Instagram post urged the public to help share the post, hoping to increase the chances of finding Kelly’s match.
Even if potential donors are not a match for Kelly, they could be a match for someone else and save a life.
After all, in Singapore, six Singaporeans are diagnosed with a blood-related disease every day.
A bone marrow transplant is likely their last chance of survival for some of these patients.
To find out more about the bone marrow donation process, click here.
We can only imagine the torment of waiting to find a match whilst going through tiring rounds of chemotherapy treatment.
If you’d like to find out whether you’re a match for Kelly, you can register to be a donor here.
Hopefully, with everyone’s help, Kelly will soon find her miracle match and will be able to get her bone marrow transplant.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from matchforkel on Instagram.
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