Black community joins drive to find stem cells for toddler

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This article was published 23/08/2022 (1170 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEGGERS are among Canadians rallying to try to save the life of an Alberta toddler suffering from leukemia.

Two-year-old Ezra Marfo was born in rural Alberta in June 2020 before he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia at 11 months old, his father Jacob Marfo said by phone from the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

The cancer of the blood and bone marrow affects the body’s ability to make healthy white blood cells.

The “very loving” boy who likes to sing has spent most of his short life in hospitals.

“He’s in a crib most of the time, he can’t get out because he has so many tubes connected to him. The furthest he can go is the length of the longest tube, so he’s more or less restricted to the crib or just around the crib,” his father said.

The toddler is in desperate need of a stem cell transplant, but so far, no one’s been a full match, despite efforts to find one in Edmonton, Calgary and elsewhere.

The boy’s predicament is exacerbated because there are few people of African descent on the Canadian Blood Services’ Stem Cell Registry — less than one per cent — and the chances of finding a suitable donor within the same ethnicity are much higher.

Jacob was found to be a partial match and donated last September, but after multiple rounds of chemo and radiation therapy, his son needs another stem cell transplant to replicate and produce healthy blood to give him a chance at survival.

Now, African and Black community members in Winnipeg are organizing testing drives at three locations Saturday and one Sunday to look for potential matches for Ezra, and others who might need them.

“In Winnipeg, a friend of mine just requested a single kit for himself, and then I said, ‘Hey, can we do an event?’ and he said ‘Yes, let’s do it,” Jacob said.

“Now not only are we doing it at one location but multiple locations. We’re getting a lot of support in terms of people giving their time and resources.”

The initial test is a cheek swab, and eligible donors need to be between ages of 17 and 35. Canadian Blood Services is providing the testing kits, and community members are organizing the drives.

Catherine Lutterodt, a Winnipeg nurse and mother of two, said she understands how critical Ezra’s condition is, and that of other children who’ve been diagnosed with leukemia.

She was compelled to help organize the drive to increase the number of registered stem cell donors of different ethnic backgrounds to “give kids like Ezra a better fighting chance at remission.”

Lutterodt, 33, said some people are scared of the donation process, so the drives are also meant to educate potential donors about how it works.

“We want to encourage other people that this is a good thing to do… if you can help save somebody’s life, why not?” said Lutterodt, who has been a registered donor for about eight years.

“I would ask them to imagine themselves in that child’s parent’s position — how would you feel if it was your child who was sick in that hospital, been in that hospital for over a year needing stem cells, and they can’t find one simply because the people that they need do not register? You’d be desperate.”

The Saturday testing drives are at Dakota Collegiate (661 Dakota St.), the ACOMI Resource Centre (101-421 Kennedy St.) and the Jamaican Association of Manitoba (1098 Winnipeg Ave.); Sunday’s is at the Church of the Pentecoast (376 Salter St.).

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera