Diverse Calgarians sought at stem cell donor drive

The Canadian Blood Services is reaching out to Calgary's various ethnic communities to help save lives.

The organization is holding an event this week at the Centre for Newcomers to encourage diverse Calgarians to register as stem cell donors.

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At any given time, about 1,000 Canadians desperately need a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.Patients in need of a stem cell donor often find their best match within theirown ethnic group. Currentlyabout 70 per cent of registered donors are Caucasian.

"Which we all know is not the face of Canada," saidRobynHenwood, a spokeswoman with the Canadian Blood Services.

"So for findingmatches for as many people as possible, we really need to round out that database and make sure we have a bunch of different backgrounds andparticularly multi-ethnic people."

'I get to go on'

Aurora Williams is alive today because of a stem cell transplant. She had a blood disorder that was attacking her bone marrow, and she says because she's part Inuit and part European, it was hard to find a stem cell match.

But Williams was ultimately saved by a mother's decision to donate her newborn's umbilical cord.

"They were probably never even told that (they) saved somebody's life. A decision you made that you didn't necessarily think would significantly impact another person, saved somebody's life. I get to go on. I get to go to school. I get to have a life."

Henwoodsays Canadian Blood Services especially need donors from Canada's Indigenous communities.

"Say somebody who is Filipino needs a match. We can go to the Philippines to find a match for them as well, because we are an international organization. But for the most part for First Nations and Metis, they do live in North America, so ifthey're not in our database we're not going to be able to find a match."

The donor drive continuesFridayat the Centre for Newcomers. Donors must be between the ages of 17 and 35, and in good health.