Local woman pushes for stem cell donations following sister's leukemia diagnosis

Sandra Turner has a kiosk set up at the Station Mall in hopes of increasing the number of donors for Canadian Blood Services’ Stem Cell and Marrow Registry.

Her sister, Karen - who’s currently on leave from her position as a teaching assistant at Anna McCrea Public School - received that diagnosis after going to the hospital in September due to what she thought at the time was a cold.

But after some bruising was discovered on Karen, more blood work was ordered.

A couple days later, she received her diagnosis.  

“She went in with a cold, and came out with leukemia,” Turner said.

Karen was immediately airlifted to Sudbury, where she underwent two rounds of chemotherapy. “She went through the whole registry and found that there was no match for her,” Turner said.

With no prospects for a match for her sister Turner decided to take action, hosting a fundraising event earlier this month and launching a GoFundMe campaign in order to cover some of her sister’s expenses.

But everything changed Wednesday afternoon, when Karen received word from Ottawa that a match had been found.

Her transplant is now booked for mid-January.    

“She has to be there in Ottawa for five months, in case there’s an infection, in case her body rejects the stem cells from the donor,” Turner said.

Although there’s still some hurdles to clear, Turner is thrilled that a match was found quickly.

“There’s that possibility it may reject it, because it’s not her stem cells,” said Turner. “So she’s not out of the woods yet, but the hardest part is finding a match - and the proof is in the pudding, we found a match.”

Even though Karen has found a match, Turner says she’ll keep pushing for more bone marrow and stem cell donations to add to the registry following her sister’s bout with leukemia.

“I’m not giving up, and I can see just because my sister’s got a match now, it looks like I’m on the right track,” she said.

So far Turner’s GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $10,000 of its $30,000 goal.

Turner plans to spread the word about becoming a donor during Friday’s midnight madness event at the Station Mall, and plans to be at the mall throughout next week encouraging the public to donate.