Donors can help save lives

TORONTO — Canadian Blood Services is asking potential donors to attend a clinic on Oct. 20, 3:30 to 8 p.m., at the offices of National Council of Jewish Women, Toronto section ( NCJW), 4700 Bathurst St., south of Finch Avenue West.

Shari Ichelson Silverman and her daughter Ashley-Ann

A press release from Canadian Blood Services said the blood donor clinic and one-match screening could save the life of Shari Ichelson Silverman, 34, who has Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

When Silverman, mother of 11-year-old daughter Ashley-Ann, first fell ill in June, numerous doctors made wrong diagnoses, the press release said, and when she collapsed and was transported by ambulance to hospital, staff thought she was dehydrated.

Blood tests soon revealed, however, that Silverman had leukemia, and testing at Princess Margaret Hospital led to the definitive diagnosis.

She spent six weeks in hospital undergoing chemotherapy and was so ill that the Code Blue (medical emergency) team responded to her twice. She received a second round of chemotherapy as an outpatient, but she developed a high fever and was hospitalized again.

Now, the press release said, Silverman has been given the news that she must have a bone marrow transplant in order to survive.

“She has had numerous blood and platelet transfusions to keep her alive to this point, and she will need many more. She needs blood, platelets and a bone marrow donor to survive.”

Her best chance of survival, it said, is a Human Leukocyte Antigen match from a Jewish donor. “All that is needed [now] is a simple mouth swab.”

The clinic could help Silverman, or the 833 other patients currently in need of life saving bone marrow transplants, the release said.

A second clinic, a collaboration between NCJW Canada Toronto section and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is being held, also at Council House, Nov. 1, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to screen for Ashkenazi Jewish genetic diseases including Tay-Sachs, Canavan, Familial Dysautonomia, Bloom syndrome, Fanconi Anemia Type C, Niemann-Pick disease Type A and Mucolipidosis IV.

Sponsors of the genetic clinic also include Jacob’s Ladder – the Canadian Foundation for Control of Neurodegenerative Disease, Dysautonomia Foundation of Canada, Fanconi Canada and the Stephanie Just Memorial Fund.

For more information, call 416-633-5100, or go to www.whatsinyourgenes.com.

— Compiled by CJN Staff