For a 13-year-old girl facing a relapse of leukaemia, survival now depends on finding a stranger whose tissue type is a near-perfect match for her own. That person may live in Mossel Bay without any idea they are needed.
Mossel Bay, South Africa (03 August 2026) – At just four years old, shortly after Christmas in 2017, Alba began a fight far bigger than any child should bear.
Her mother, Esther, had noticed Alba was bruising easily and had developed an unusual rash. When tiny red blood spots appeared on her skin, Esther rushed her to a paediatrician.
“I remember the doctor suddenly becoming very quiet,” she recalls.
“He’s not the silent type. The moment he stopped talking, I knew something was wrong.”
Tests confirmed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
“It felt like all the hope disappeared in that moment,” Esther says.
After two and a half years of chemotherapy, Alba recovered, returned to school, and went back to dreaming of becoming a chef or an anime voice actor. Then, knee pain following a fall prompted further tests, which revealed the cancer had returned. A bone marrow biopsy confirmed it.
Today, Alba is once again seriously ill. After an infection left her in a critical condition, she was admitted to the haematology ward, where she remains in protective isolation. Her treatment has once again put much of her childhood on hold. She has missed months of school, including her Grade 7 exams, and will now have to repeat the year.
To survive, Alba needs a stem cell transplant, and that depends on finding an unrelated donor whose tissue characteristics closely match her own.
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Signing up took only a few minutes and involved a short form and a few cheek swabs. Each sample would then be added to a global registry, giving patients with blood cancers and blood disorders like Alba a better chance of finding a matching stem cell donor.
The community initiative was coordinated by Grindstone, a Mossel Bay-based creative and digital agency, and Unfound Garden Route, the region’s destination management organisation, in partnership with DKMS Africa.
“The hope I have to keep holding onto is that somewhere in the world, there may already be someone who could save my daughter’s life. They just don’t know they’re needed yet,” says Esther, who is part of the digital agency team, and whose colleagues have rallied around the family throughout Alba’s treatment.
Though they are completely reliant on finding a donor, the family is clear that the event was about far more than one child. Every person who signed up could one day become the match for someone’s child, parent, sibling or friend. Alba feels the same.
“If sharing my story encourages more people to join the registry, I know it could also help countless other families,” she says.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that donating means major surgery. In reality, 100% of stem cell donations are collected from the bloodstream, in a process similar to donating blood or plasma. Registration is quick, painless and free.
“Every hour, someone in South Africa is diagnosed with blood cancer, and for many of these patients a transplant from a matching donor is their only chance of survival,” explains Palesa Mokomele, Head of Community Engagement and Communications at DKMS Africa.
“Patients are most likely to find that match among donors who share their heritage, which is why every registration in a community like Mossel Bay counts. When residents step forward, they improve the odds not only for Alba, but for patients across the country and around the world.”
Anyone aged 17 to 55 and in general good health can register as a potential donor. DKMS Africa representatives will be on site throughout the day to check eligibility, answer questions, and guide participants through the process. Community members are encouraged to bring friends, family and colleagues, and to help spread the word.
Those unable to attend on the day can still register by requesting a free home swab kit at www.dkms-africa.org.
Sources: DKMS Africa
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