Thornhill high school holds event for leukemia patient, 5
Posted March 4, 2013 9:12 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Students at a Thornhill high school held a bone marrow swab event on Monday to help a local five-year-old girl who’s battling a rare form of leukemia.
Sarah Watkin, 5, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) last October and is being treated at the Hospital for Sick Children. She’s currently in remission, but if this aggressive form of cancer comes back, a bone marrow transplant would be her only treatment option.
Potential donors attended the student bone marrow event between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Westmount Collegiate’s gym.
Sarah has undergone more than 50 blood transfusions since her diagnosis, her mother Leah said on a Facebook page called Sarah’s Drive for Hope. Her parents have been renting a condo near the hospital to be as close to Sarah as possible during her treatments.
“Sarah has been through so many hardships. She has had at least 10 lumbar punctures and 4 bone marrow aspirations,” Leah Watkin said on the Facebook page. “She has been through four rounds of chemotherapy. She has been so sick that literally almost died three times in December alone.”
After the little girl had a relapse, the family started looking for a bone marrow match, but could not find one. Chemotherapy continued and Sarah’s cancer went into remission.
“We started bone marrow and blood drives as well as a Facebook page trying to get the word out. We recognized that there are so many people out there, some we know, that need blood and bone marrow,” Leah Watkin said.
“We want to raise awareness around the world, so that other families don’t get the same news we did.”
Potential donors can also sign up at onematch.ca.
