Growing up, Jeanet learned that kindness from strangers can change everything – and now, one simple DNA swab from campus has given a leukaemia patient across the globe a fighting chance at life.
Western Cape, South Africa (22 October 2026) – Raised by a single mother in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, and being the eldest of two siblings, Jeanet Mokoena has always known what it means to depend on the kindness of others. This experience shaped her belief that helping people shouldn’t depend on whether you know them.
So, when asked if she would be willing to sign up for an initiative that could potentially save a life, her answer was an enthusiastic yes!
It was during that campus health awareness campaign in 2025 that Jeanet agreed to sign up as a stem cell donor and did a DNA swab – an act that has now changed everything for a person on the other side of the world whom she had never even met.
About a year after registering, in early 2026, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Linguistics Honours student received an unexpected call from DKMS, an international organisation dedicated to fighting blood cancer and blood disorders by helping patients find matching stem cell donors.
The person on the line informed Jeanet that she was a match for a leukaemia patient in his 50s living in the United States.
“She asked whether I would be willing to donate to a patient who urgently needed stem cell transplantation, and my immediate answer was ‘yes’ without any hesitation,” shared Jeanet.
According to UWC, Jeanet’s desire to help another person outweighed her fear of undergoing an unfamiliar procedure – stem cell collection, a non-surgical process in which blood-forming stem cells are collected from a donor’s bloodstream.
In fact, she says, what came to mind after receiving the call was how she would want others to respond if she were the one in need.
“That made the decision to donate easy,” she said, adding that knowing her body would regenerate stem cells again gave her further reassurance.
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Football and Water Slides Jumping Kids Enjoy a Day to RememberFor Jeanet, prioritising the needs of a stranger was a natural extension of the kindness and thoughtfulness she had experienced from others growing up. With her mother working far from home as a domestic worker in Limpopo, neighbours, community members, and even teachers stepped in to support her and her sibling.
That generosity shaped her life and even made it possible for her to travel to UWC when she was first accepted. So, when an opportunity arises to help someone else, Jeanet’s willingness is never in question.
According to 23-year-old Jeanet, who dreams of pursuing her studies to PhD level, the discomfort of undergoing medical tests, injections, and a six-hour stem cell collection procedure was a small sacrifice compared to what her donation could mean for someone fighting for his life.
“That could be someone’s father, uncle or partner. I’m just happy that I was able to make a difference in his life and hopefully give him more time with his family,” she said.
Extending kindness isn’t just beautiful; it has the power to significantly shape the course of one’s life – and in this case, can save one too.
Sources: University of the Western Cape
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