Durban - A Chesterville mother of two, who has leukaemia, is making a desperate plea for stem cell donors to come forward to help her get well again.
Gugulethu Ximba, 38, is searching for a stem cell donor match and her best chance of finding one is likely to be from among Africans. This is because blood stem cell matches are based on tissue type and not blood type, which means her genetic match is most likely to come from someone of the same ethnic background.
Ximba has two children, a 14-yearold daughter and a 19-month-old boy, who is currently staying with one of her sisters while she fights cancer.
Leukaemia is not foreign to Ximba and her family. In 2008, her mother was diagnosed with the same disorder and lost the battle that same year.
“When I started falling ill, I didn’t reach out for help because I recognised the symptoms from my mother. I didn’t go to the clinic and I started to self-medicate with pain tablets, and they would only stop the pain for a little while but the pain would come back worse,” she said.
Ximba starting feeling sick in September last year, she felt dizzy, had blurry vision, persistent headaches, fatigue, and shortness of breath. When her symptoms persisted and grew stronger she mustered the courage to go to the doctor and was later diagnosed with leukaemia.
She said her sisters have been a great support to her. “I pray that I will be granted time to spend with my kids. That’s what I wish for. I just want to be able to raise my kids and build a home for them.
“I really wish that black people can donate because there are so many black people who need stem cell donations. You can give someone else hope and maybe even save a life,” said Ximba.
DKMS an international, non-profit organisation dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders is helping share Ximba’s story. To become a blood stem cell donor is free from the point of registration to donation. It involves a non-surgical and non-invasive procedure with no hospital stay.
Nabiella De Beer, communications manager at DKMS Africa, said: “While the number of black patients is rising, we have a very low representation of black people on the global registry, this greatly limits the chances of patients finding a matching donor.”
Visit www.dkms-africa.org to register as a donor.
THE MERCURY