Stem Cell Donor Needed for Young Lives at Risk

DKMS Africa, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the struggle in opposition to blood most cancers and blood issues, is interesting to potential donors to assist save two younger lives.

Two-year-old Oyintando and 21-year-old Zachary are urgently looking for matching donors to outlive.

Two younger lives on maintain

Following quite a few hospital visits, Oyintando was initially identified with Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is a standard and normally innocent virus that causes issues in infants and other people with weakened immune programs.

After six weeks of remedy, a follow-up referral led docs to lastly diagnose him with Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. This is a uncommon, life-changing genetic dysfunction that weakens the immune system and impacts blood clotting.

“I used to be terrified once I heard the analysis,” says his mom, Bonakele, who had misplaced one other little one years earlier to related signs. “The docs defined all the pieces to me, and over time, I needed to come to phrases with the fact.”

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21-year-old Zachary, a third-year pupil at Nelson Mandela University, had his life change in a single day in February 2025. He went on a routine go to to test on low blood strain however ended up leaving with an Aplastic Anaemia analysis. This is a situation the place the bone marrow fails to provide sufficient new blood cells.

He now depends on weekly transfusions and has undergone a number of rounds of remedy. Unfortunately, none of his members of the family are appropriate donors.

You Could Be the Match

“Both Oyintando and Zachary urgently want stem cell transplants, and their survival depends upon the generosity of others,” says Palesa Mokomele, head of Community Engagement and Communications at DKMS Africa

Ways to assist

Members of the general public can study extra and register as potential donors at https://www.dkms-africa.org/save-lives. The course of is free, easy, and non-invasive, and one registration might imply the distinction between life and loss of life for sufferers like Oyintando and Zachary.

In completely different corners of South Africa, two households are holding onto hope, united by a determined want for a stem cell donor who might give their family members a second probability at life.