Carena Cash Abbey, Region: East London
"I am pleading to all people Black, White, Asian and mixed race. Wherever you’re from, please do not wait until this affects someone you love before you do something. Leukemia can affect anybody. Please think about the valuable gift you could be giving to someone out there – you could save a life" (Angela Xavier, Carena’s mother)
Angela Xavier’s 12-year-old daughter Carena Cash-Abbey had just completed the London (Ten) Bridges charity walk with her school when she and her family were told the devastating news that the leukemia was back. Carena had previously fought off the illness at Great Ormond Street Hospital spending 11 months in remission.
For Carena to survive now she desperately needed a compatible bone marrow donor from an individual amongst the black or mixed race community. Her parents realized how low the number of Black and Mixed parentage people there were on the register and wanted to help increase the numbers to help their daughter and others in desperate need of a donor.
Despite a huge media campaign, sadly no match was found.
The doctors at Great Ormond Street told Carena’s family that the next step would be for her to undergo a cord blood transplant, but after further investigation it was expressed that a much safer option for Carena would be anAutologous stem cell transplant. With anAutologous stem cell transplant the patients own stem cells are removed or harvested before treatment and then frozen. After they have received high doses of chemo, radiation, or both, the stem cells are thawed and given back to them. There would be no chance of stem cell rejection, as Carena would be receiving her own cells.
Carena still has a 50% risk of relapsing and may still need a bone marrow donor in the future.
