World Media Unites to Find Donor for Thai-Italian Student with Leukemia

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World Media Unites to Find Donor for Mixed Race Student with Leukemia

Casalotti's family launched the online #Match4Lara in an urgent appeal to find a donor for Lara as quickly as possible.

LONDON: -- Lara Casalotti, a 24 year-old global migration student, human rights and charity activist, was recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia during a business trip to Thailand while working on issues with migrant workers.

Half Italian and half Thai, Casalotti is seeking the rare transplant donor whose bone marrow precisely matches her ethnicity.

Casalotti, of Hampstead, London, discovered her acute condition prior to Christmas, after thinking she had pulled a muscle in her back. While being treated at London’s University College Hospital, the student, who speaks five languages, was told she has little chance of survival as only 0.5 percent of registered donors on the Anthony Nolan bone marrow database match her statistics. The database is a UK charity for recruiting potential donors.

Casalotti's family launched the online #Match4Lara in an urgent appeal to find a donor for Lara as quickly as possible.

The campaign seeks to find not only a perfect transplant match but also to promote a deeper understanding for those of mixed ethnic-minority race who suffer for a lack of donors.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20160112/1032982826/world-media-unites-leukemia.html

-- SPUTNIK 2016-01-12

[MatteoBassini]

How does the transplant work? I'm half-Thai half-Italian too.

[roamer]

How does the transplant work? I'm half-Thai half-Italian too.

If you check the link below you will find out details of how you can be tested in many countries including Thailand.

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For Thailand, to register as a donor, you can visit the Thai Red Cross National Blood Center and join the Thai Stem Cell Donor Registry Tel. +66 (2) 256-4300, +66 (2) 252-1637. When you arrive at the registry, you should ask to "GET STEM CELL TESTING and JOIN THE DONOR REGISTRY". Feel free to let them know that you here because of the match4Lara campaign. The staffs at the National Blood Center will carefully explain how it all works and ask you to sign a consent form. Once this is done, you will be asked to donate blood and a sample will be taken for HLA testing. The science behind the HLA testing is very complicated and the lab work will take at least 20 days so there is no need to wait for the results. You can now go home knowing that you have just potentially saved someone's life. Once the lab determines your HLA tying, the results will be automatically entered into the Donor Registry system waiting for the recipients that match. Only in the unlikely event that your HLA typing is identified as a potential match will you be contacted by the National Registry."

They don't take a bone marrow sample to check if you are a suitable donor, just a blood sample. In many countries including the USA & UK you don't even have to do that, just register online from the link below and they will send you a kit for a saliva sample.

Over 90% of stem cell transplants are simply done with cells collected from a blood donation. These days it is rarely needed to actually take any bone marrow, and even if it were I'm sure most of us will agree that would be a small price to pay to save a young girls life. And if you check out the blog

The Thai-Italian part can be a bit misleading. Thai-Farang would be a better way of putting it in terms of being able to find a suitable donor.

Many TV members will know of people who fit these criteria but wouldn't have seen this appeal and emailing a link could help wherever they are in the world.

Thanks.

Roamer.

http://www.match4lara.com/