UPDATE: Lankan father seeks life-saving donor in Australia

(UPDATE)

Our son Shehan (33 years) was diagnosed recently with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) a type of blood cancer, shortly after becoming a father to his first child. He is undergoing chemotherapy, but is in need of an urgent Stem Cell Transplant in order to increase his chances of survival.

 

Leukemia is a form of blood cancer affecting many people worldwide and a stem cell transplant will boost the chances of a permanent cure.  Stem cell transplants require matching certain tissue straits of a donor and the patient.

 

Generally the patient’s best chance of finding a suitable donor is within their immediate or extended family members. However, 70 percent of patients cannot find a suitable donor within their families, therefore requiring an unrelated donor. Unfortunately this too is in the case of Shehan, so far his extended family members have not yielded a match. We are therefore desperately searching for a donor.

 

The chance of finding a suitable unrelated donor match is 1 in 20000, with better suitability within the patient’s ethnic background. Regrettably there are very few donors of Sri Lankan and South Asian origin in the global registry.

 

All it takes to be a donor is to agree to have a simple blood test where approx 2 teaspoons of blood will be taken from you for tissue typing. If you happen to be a match, stem cells are extracted from the donor’s blood through a basic procedure which does not involve surgery. The whole procedure takes less than half a day.

 

As his parents Sherwell and Carmini from Sydney Australia, appeal to the Sri Lankans and other similar ethnicity living in Australia or on holiday there, to open their hearts to Shehan’s story, to come forward and get tested by a simple blood test conducted free of charge at their nearest location - to help them locate (out of the possibilities of a 1 in a 20,000), that single person who is the perfect match for their son Shehan.

 

They simply say “help save our son”. You can make a difference

 

The next Donor Drive for Shehan will be held on the 19th of July 2011 (Tuesday) from 3 -7 pm at Red Cross Australia, No. 358 Haughton Road, Clayton, Melbourne

 

Contact in Australia : Sherwell and Carmini – 612-89013049, 61-0438388122

Contact in Sri Lanka : Roshani 0775879050, Ramesh 0785000227

Lankan father seeks life-saving donor in Australia

A young Sydney father is searching Monash for someone with a Sri Lankan background who can be a blood stem cell donor, giving him a second chance at life.


Shehan Fernando, 33, found out he had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia just days after his first son, Andrei, was born.


Three months later, Mr Fernando needs a blood stem cell transplant to survive, but despite trying more than 600 donors, he is yet to find a match.


Being of Sri Lankan heritage, the most likely donor match would be another person of the same heritage, so his family are broadening their search to Clay Leg 1 ton, Noble Park and Dandenong, and holding a donor drive with the Red Cross on July 19.


More than 4300 people living in Monash were born in Sri Lanka.


Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratory Assoc Prof Sharon Ricardo said having a donor of the same ethnicity as the recipient gave transplants a better chance of success.


“It’s not only that you get a blood match, but you have got to make sure the patient doesn’t have a rejection, so anyone from the same ethnic background will help with that,” she said.


Mr Fernando was too sick to speak to the Leader last week because he is receiving high-dose chemotherapy, his mother, Carmini Fernando, said.


“They were so excited about their baby,” Mrs Fernando said.


“This is his first-born, it should have been an absolute joy.”


She appealed to Sri Lankans to sign up to become a donor.


“My husband (Shehan’s father) is a Burgher, so his best chance of a donor is in Melbourne because there are a lot of Burghers,” Mrs Fernando said.


“He was one of the strongest young people you have ever come across ... to see him like this is very heartbreaking.”


The Red Cross donor drive will be held on Tuesday, July 19 from 3-7pm at the Burgher Association Hall, 358 Haughton Rd, Clayton.


Details: Genny Schokman on 0424 892 283, Australian media reports.