All in for Alex was organized after 12-year-old Alex Pasichnyk went into total bone marrow failure over the summer. She was diagnosed with a rare form of aplastic anemia and is in need of a bone marrow donor.
Since the start of the event on November 25th, they have seen an overwhelming amount of support.
“Overwhelming would be the word it’s just amazing how many people want to come out and help, like complete strangers who don’t know me or my daughter but just the goodness in people and especially students are exactly who we want, the perfect age group and the willingness to help,” says Lisa Pasichnyk.
The event has partnered up with the Canadian Blood Services program OneMatch. OneMatch is responsible for finding and matching volunteer donors to patients who require stem cell transplants. That means those who volunteer aren’t just helping Alex, they could be helping anyone in need of a donor. Once you’re in the system, you are a candidate for anyone in need of a bone marrow donor until you are 60 years old.
Robyn Henwood, Territory Manager with Canadian Health Services says, “At any given time in Canada alone we have about a thousand people looking for stem cell and bone marrow match of those numbers we find matches for about fifty percent of them.”
The University of Alberta, NAIT and MacEwan University have all opened their doors to help the cause. Candidates must be between 17 and 35 years of age, making post-secondary the perfect place to find donors.
Ethnic background does play a role in finding a match. In Alex’s case anyone of Ukrainian, Polish or English decent has a better chance of matching with her.
If you would like to get swabbed there is still one event left at Archbishop Jordan High School on December 12th from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. If you can’t make it to this event you can go to OneMatch and get a swab kit sent to your house.
