SOS for donors

By Ed Merrison
A BERWICK woman has launched a community plea to try to save a cancer-stricken childhood friend.
Maria Sousa is calling on the local Portuguese and wider community to sign up as bone marrow donors as doctors search for a match for her friend Victor Oliveira.
Mr Oliveira, 29, of Lyndhurst, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2003.
He went into remission a year and a half ago after radiotherapy and an initial bone marrow transplant appeared to bear success.
However, the terrible spectre of cancer revisited his family and friends when he fell sick again eight months ago.
Mr Oliveira, now undergoing chemotherapy, has not worked since, and Ms Sousa and Irene Oliveira, Victor’s wife of six years, are gravely worried.
It is not possible for a donor to choose the recipient of bone marrow, but Ms Sousa hoped people would consider joining the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) to give her friend, and others like him all over the world, a chance at life.
Ms Sousa’s appeal to the Portuguese community, among which Victor’s parents Guilherme and Salete are particularly active, is due to the greater likelihood of a blood match within an ethnic group.
Blood relatives offer the strongest chance, but neither Victor’s brother or sister turned up a successful match.
“We’re all really trying to help him,” Ms Sousa said. “If we can’t find the same blood he’s in a lot of danger.”
Mr Oliveira said Ms Sousa was a great friend, and hoped her campaign would lead to “a whole heap of people” adding their names to the registry.
Criteria for bone marrow donors are strict, with only healthy people between 18 and 40 years of age eligible to join the registry.
In the first instance, willing donors have to make an appointment with the local blood bank, where a sample is taken to establish tissue type.
The ABMDR then enters tissue types into a national database and contacts donors when it finds a possible match with a patient, although only about one in 1000 donors per year are asked to give stem cells.
Mr Oliveira said a lot of people were aware of the need for blood, but fewer tended to understand the value of offering their bone marrow to patients all over the world.
“It’s a good thing for everyone to give,” Mr Oliveira said. “If they don’t help me they might help someone else.”
Anyone wishing to find out more can call the Australian Red Cross Blood Service on 13 14 95.