The family of an Alberta girl says that a nearly perfect stem cell match has been found to help her overcome a pair of rare blood disorders.
Roshlind Mance, who was diagnosed with two rare blood disorders earlier this summer, was told that the only way to get better would be through a stem cell donation.
Given that the 16-year-old is Filipino, searching for a matching donor was very difficult. It led the family to hold a number of different swabbing events in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg to find a donor.
The family now says those efforts have paid off after a proper donor has been found. The individual, who wants to remain anonymous, is a 90 percent match and that means there is only a five percent chance that the donation won’t work.
Officials say the odds of finding a donor to match Mance’s Filipino ancestry were particularly slim, especially considering that less than one percent of the people in the Canadian Blood Service’s database are Filipino.
Mance is scheduled to receive the transplant early next year.
