More lifesaving help needed

THERE is no shortage of donors – organisations and individuals – stepping forward to assist us in our hour of need following the devastation wrought on our province in recent weeks.

In this regard, we are grateful to our upcountry cousins for several large deliveries of essential goods.

Never has the sight of a GP number plate been more welcome on KwaZulu-Natal roads. And long may such help continue.

But forgotten in the scramble to ensure that people have bread and milk is another desperate need, one that is equally important to life.

Zesuliwe Mazubane, like many others in her unfortunate position, needs a bone marrow transplant, or she will probably die.

Bone marrow transplants are used to treat various types of cancer, including leukaemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, and other blood and immune system diseases.

Transplants come from donors, of which, however, there are currently only about 74 000 registered on the SA Bone Marrow Registry.

This is far too few in a country of 60 million people. The maths is not difficult to comprehend: the more registered donors, the greater chance a recipient has of finding a match, and of survival.

And the chances of success increase further if there are more donors of the recipient’s ethnicity.

While the country recovers from the looting and rioting, and much goodwill pervades in the form of donating and giving, let’s give Zesuliwe a chance at recovery by registering as donors.