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Most of us are familiar with blood drives, but a stem cell drive was being held in London Thursday evening.
A steady stream of volunteers arrived at Chabad house on Richmond Street to have their cheeks swabbed.
The event is in honour of Londoner Ted Simkovich who has been diagnosed with two types of cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. He will need a stem cell transplant in the near future.
“So we are swabbing people’s cheeks to collect some cells to see if they are a match for Ted, who is battling cancer and needs a stem cell transplant, or for anyone else in need,” said Ted’s niece, Moriah, who helped organize the drive.
The drive is recruiting people between the ages of 17 and 35. Participants will end up on a registry, according to Chris Van Doorn of Canadian Blood Services.
Van Doorn said donating stem cells is similar to donating blood.
“If they do get called in the future, it could be a month from now, five years, ten years, they’ll call them and ask them if they still want to donate. And basically 90 per cent of the time it’s like a blood donation. The person is back to go to work the next day and they’ve directly saved somebody’s life.”
Van Doorn explained that stem cell transplants are used in the treatment of blood cancers, such as leukaemia.
“Leukaemia is number one. We can cure that cancer with a stem cell transplant,” said Van Doorn.
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