Baby Ray is a real-life ray of sunshine; he needed a bone marrow transplant, and thankfully, a match has been found!
South Africa (12 May 2022) – Continued awareness campaigns for children looking for bone marrow donor matches have meant several of the children whose stories we cover have found their matches. First, Mighty Mack got hers, and now Baby Rayaan has found his match too!
Baby Rayaan was diagnosed with life-threatening Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) when he was just eight weeks old. AML usually requires immediate treatment, and for baby Rayaan, bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant is his only chance of a cure.
Without a successful transplant, Rayaan would have to endure continued chemotherapy and isolation, which will expose him to the terminal effects of infection.
Rayaan’s family were in search of an unrelated matching donor, but the chances of finding a match were low due to the low representation of diverse stem cell donors across the country and in the global registry. Unfortunately, patients of colour are at a distinct disadvantage due to the low number of registered donors from the Black, Coloured and Indian population groups in the global donor database.
Thankfully, through continued awareness campaigns, more diverse donors stepped forward and eventually, a donor match was found for Baby Ray. Ray is set to have his transplant in late May.
“It is with great gratitude and appreciation to thank each and everyone of you who signed up with DKMS Africa as potential donors and to all of those who have supported and shared in our fight to Save Rays life. You have made the difference!
Over the past few weeks that Ray was home he was able to rebuild his strength. He was closely monitored by his doctor, Dr Nadia Beringer, who ensured that he remained in remission. Ray thrived and reached his age appropriate milestones such as head control, sitting, grabbing and mimicking actions all while his beautiful smile melted hearts.”
Currently, between 800 to 1,000 children in South Africa are diagnosed with cancer annually. However, this number does not account for the almost 50% of cases of childhood cancer that are never diagnosed, largely due to a lack of knowledge regarding the disease and how it presents in children.
Due to the fact that children still experience growth spurts within a short space of time, this may cause blood cancer and disorders to spread quicker and more aggressively. Therefore, diseases affecting young children tend to be those most often occurring in the developing cells such as bone marrow, blood, kidneys and nervous system tissues.
“There are literally thousands of people in dire need of bone marrow transplants and we urge you to please consider signing up to become a potential life saver if you have not done so already.
Please please keep donating blood as well as platelets as they are a crucial lifeline to Ray and the millions of other people in need.
We will continue raising awareness for all the fighters that need our help and we hope you will too. We are all in this fight together.” – Sharon Singh Schön, Baby Rayaan’s mom.
For bone marrow donations: You can sign up to be a bone marrow donor at www.dkms-africa.org (formally known as The Sunflower Fund) or www.sabmr.co.za. The Bone Marrow Registry is international, so if you are overseas, you can still register and get tested.
You will be notified if you qualify to be a donor by working through their lists. To register, there is no blood or needles involved, just a cheek swab. Registering is free of charge.
For blood donations: If you are between the ages of 16 and 75, weigh 50kg or more, are healthy on the day of donation and lead a safe sexual lifestyle, you should be able to donate. Blood donation takes 30 minutes of your time, and you can donate every 56 days. Donors can rest assured that it is safe to donate blood and that all COVID-19 safety protocols are in place. You can search SANBA branches here to find a donation centre close to you.
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