MONTREAL — People in Montreal, Toronto and elsewhere are being asked to have their cheeks painlessly swabbed in a concerted effort to find a bone marrow match and donor as soon as possible for a 15-month-old baby girl diagnosed just a few weeks ago with a deadly bone marrow failure disorder.
Ayelet Yakira Galena
“It is extraordinarily rare disorder,” said prominent Montreal Rabbi Reuben Poupko, whose daughter, Hindy Poupko Galena, and son-in-law, Seth Galena, received the devastating news about their daughter, Ayelet Yakira Galena.
In Toronto, a “Get Swabbed for Ayelet” bone marrow drive is set for March 13, from 2 to 10 p.m. at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation at 613 Clark Ave. in Thornhill.
Montrealers can join the Héma-Québec Stem Cell Registry by visiting, hema-quebec.qc.ca and clicking on, “The registry of Life…in 3 easy steps” under the “Stem Cells” heading, and joining the registry. A cheek swab test kit will then be sent to them.
Individuals can also make donations on Ayelet’s behalf to Gift of Life, at www.giftoflife.org/dc/Ayelet-Galena/blog.aspx.
Ayelet’s family lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Yeshiva University, Hindy’s alma mater, has already held a bone marrow drive on the baby’s behalf, and others are in the planning stages.
Interviewed in late February about her daughter’s situation on WCBS radio in New York, Hindy, a professional with the city’s Jewish Community Relations Council, said, “every day is a risk because [Ayelet’s] immune system is basically running at 50 per cent.”
The baby was born prematurely, weighing two pounds, nine ounces, with an already-compromised immune system. But her rare and potentially fatal disorder was diagnosed only last month.
