KOCHI: A stem cell donation awareness and donor registration drive is being organised by the students and staff of KMEA Engineering College, Edathala, at the college on Tuesday for Mira, a two-year-old Indian living in Boston.
Mira (www.facebook.com/mirasfighters) was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in May 2015 and was treated with chemotherapy. The disease recurred in February 2016 and the child needs a stem cell transplant to save her.
DATRI, a Chennai-based blood stem cell donors registry (www.datriworld.org) started stem cell donor registration drives in India for her. Earlier, a stem cell donor registration drive was conducted in KMEA Engineering College in 2014, for a 7 month-old and 1541 people registered as potential stem cell donors through the camp. After that, Akshay Krishnan, Abin Saji, Ajmal Rahman, students of KMEA, donated stem cells and saved the life of three cancer patients.
Stem Cell Donor Registration has three stages – An awareness session, registration and sample collection. A cheek cell sample (Buccal Swab Sample) taken by rubbing a cotton swab on the inner cheek is taken to determine the genetic typing in a laboratory. If there is a match, the donor’s cells will be drawn for the transplant.
The donor registration drive is scheduled from 10 am to 4 pm at KMEA Engineering College. Special registration counters have been arranged for the public.
