Joyce Suen, Makoda's mom, says, " Everything all happened so quickly, there was no time to think, just to react."

Persistent paleness, and bumps on her skin were the Suen's first signs, that they're daughter, Makoda had more than you're average cold. Bloodwork later determined she had acute myelogenous leukemia, a fast-progressing cancer of the blood-forming tissues of the bone marrow.

Dr. Geoff Cuvelier, Pediatric Oncologist, BC Children's Hospital, says, "most children diagnosed who are disagnosed with AML, we would treat for six months with chemotherapy for approximately six months with a bone marrow transplant, of course, the problem with bone marrow transplant is you ultimately need to have a sibling to have five out of six or six out of sex match to have a transplant."

Adopted from China, Makoda has no traceable siblings with this possible match of genetic markers. So the Suen's went ahead with chemotherapy alone. Initially, the treatment worked.

Joyce Suen says that Makoda went through the six months of chemo. "Amazingly, the doctors were saying how resilient she's been. It's probably the last week or so, you can see she's getting tired. Her complexion is a lot paler."

Makoda's father David Suen says, "now the goal is to try to get her back into remission with chemotherapy and from there do a bone marrow transplant, that's basically the only solution."

There are 230-thousand people registered in our national bone marrow registry and Canada has access to more than 10-million potential donor worldwide, but that's still no guarantee for a match.

"She's adopted from China, so her family don't have a match."

Most people have a 70 percent of finding a match from the general population, but for some ethnic groups, like Asians, it's much lower because there are fewer Asian donors. That's why Joyce's co-workers at BCIT are appealing for more people to come forward for testing.

Kelly Voros says, "I've had several students that have said, you can give bone marrow, they didn't even know that they could because they're young and they really haven't had it touched their lives yet."

Joyce Suen says, "there are so many kids out there waiting for a donor, waiting for a good match."

David Suen says, "Survival rates are so much higher when the match is a lot better. So we're just hoping for the best."

If you'd like to become a bone marrow donor, to help Makoda or someone else, you can go to the website: www.bloodservices.ca. You have to be between 17 to 50 years of age to register. If you are actually called on to donate, you'll undergo further testing before the actual day surgery procedure, which is done under anesthetic.  Since 60% of transplants done here come from donors outside of Canada, your contribution may well save the life of someone here or abroad.

Tuesday April 4, 2006