TANIA HAS ACUTE MYELOID LEUKAEMIA
AND NEEDS A BONE MARROW DONOR
TO SAVE HER LIFE.
Find out how you can HELP!
I recently celebrated my 45th birthday surrounded by family and friends. It was a wonderful day and if you asked me to describe it I could tell you that the food was delicious, the weather balmy, and the birthday presents were, as usual, completely over-the-top generous.
But if I had to describe how I felt on that day, well there are simply no words in my vocabulary for that. Of course words like awesome, incredible, amazing, grateful and happy all spring to mind, but none of them seem to be nearly enough.
So I’m going to go with one simple word that sums it up best. That day I felt ‘normal’. For a little while all the pain, confusion and fear of the past 10 months melted away. For a few sweet hours I was able to forget that I am literally fighting for my life.
As the kids chased each other around the yard, the music, laughter, and clinking of glasses drifted out into the street, I felt like I was my old self again, I felt blissfully, peacefully, normal.
Because I’m not my ‘old’ self. I can’t be. Not anymore.
On July 7th, 2016 I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer. When doctors told me I was going to need a bone marrow transplant to survive I kind of took it in my stride. ‘That’s OK’, I thought, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get well again – let’s do this!!’
But after four rounds of chemo and six agonising months spent in hospital away from my family I was delivered the final, devastating blow. Out of the 28 million people on the Global Bone Marrow Register, not one of them was my match.
The day I got that news was the single worst day of my life. I was adrift at sea and felt utterly powerless to do anything about it. But, in that dreadful moment in my doctor’s office, with my whole world suddenly shattering into a million little pieces around me – I still had one thin thread of hope to hold onto – the hope of finding a compatible bone marrow donor.
So now all I can do is wait…. And while I wait, my life is on hold and time is running out.
You see I had no idea, and maybe you don’t either, that due to my mixed ethnic heritage I have a drastically reduced chance of finding a compatible donor. Dad is Croatian and Mum is Australian (British Isles). On my Dad’s side I fall into the ‘Southern European’ group, which includes countries like Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Italy and Greece. People with Southern European heritage make up less than 4% of the Australian bone marrow donor registry.
Some people in my position can have a stem cell transplant using the stem cells from umbilical cords. Others can have a successful transplant without the need for a perfect match. Unfortunately, I cannot.
For me a 60% match - or even a 95% match - just won’t do.
For me, it’s a case of finding the *perfect* match. The hardest thing is knowing that there is another unique ‘me’ somewhere out there in the world, we just have to find them.
I’ve received incredible support over the past 10 months with literally hundreds of friends, and strangers alike, joining the register after hearing about my story through the @findtanadonor Facebook page. And for that I am truly humbled and forever grateful.
I need people everywhere to know just how easy it is to join the Global Bone Marrow Registry and how easily they could save my life, and the lives of so many other people in my position.
But the truth is that over 80% of all people on the Australian Bone Marrow registry are North Caucasian. The rest are split into tiny percentages of different ethnic groups, and in some cases that’s less than 1% representation.
I absolutely need a miracle, but there is hope.
Last year the #match4lara campaign was launched to help 24 year old Lara Casalotti, a Chinese/Thai/Italian woman, also diagnosed with AML, find a donor. Her campaign went viral after Ellen and JK Rowling got behind it. They ran donor drives around the world and eventually found her perfect match. Lara’s had her transplant and today she’s thriving. And to think, it was all because someone heard her story and joined the bone marrow registry.
Yes, it really is *that* easy.
There are many other people around the world like me with no donor match. I’ve been in touch with Kate who is also and Adelaide mum of two who is half Hungarian and Jake from Perth who is just 12 and is half Samoan.
I’m asking those who are of Croatian (Balkan) / Australian (British Isles) heritage in particular to go on the donor registry in their country, but anyone with non-Caucasian heritage or mixed heritage is urged to register. Increasing the amount of people on the register with ethnic and mixed ethnic heritage helps and protects everybody. This agonising wait for a lifeline just isn’t something people should have to go through and it breaks my heart to know that it doesn’t have to be this way.
I want to grow old with my husband and be there as my kids grow up. I want to be there for them as they make their own way through life, when they meet the loves of their lives, walk down the isle, and maybe even one day have kids of their own.
In December this year my husband and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. With your help we can celebrate many more.
I need people to register, to share my story, to follow my page, to talk to their friends and family and ask them to register.
FB, Twitter, Instagram: @findtanadonor
Website: https://www.findtanadonor.com
