Alberta father searching for life-saving stem cell match for toddler
CBC
A Lac La Biche, Alta. man is desperately seeking a matching stem cell donor to save his sick son.
Jacob Marfo's two-year-old, Ezra, is currently in a Calgary hospital because of acute myelogenous leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Ezra was born in June 2020 and diagnosed the next May.
"He is sick — very very sick," Marfo told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.
"Sometimes when you look at him, you can't even recognize he's the same boy — that little fun boy — who was running around."
Ezra has gone through multiple rounds of chemotherapy. He has spent more time in hospitals than he has outside of them, according to his father.
"A stem cell transplant is part of the treatment package because this type of cancer destroys the stem cell in the bone marrow," Marfo said.
He said Ezra's chemotherapy and other treatments have not been successful and stressed the need for a stem cell donation from a perfect match.
Marfo is only a partial match for his son and has already donated his own stem cells twice.
Now, as Ezra's condition worsens, he is searching for a better match.
Marfo and his family are from Ghana and more likely to find a matching donor among those who have a similar genetic background.
"Patients have better odds of matching within their own ethnicity when they do need to find that life-saving match," said Adrienne San Juan, community development manager at Canadian Blood Services.
Human leukocyte antigens — proteins found in cells in the body — are measured to rank matches. Most transplant doctors aim for a nine or 10 out of 10 match for stem cell transplants.
Ezra's family members in Canada have all been tested but no match was found.
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