Through the doors of a Richmond church they filtered in slowly; sometimes in ones, some in twos, a few as families of four and five.
They were strangers from as far as East Vancouver and Surrey, they were faces familiar to each other through their work at Richmond Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health or DeBeck elementary.
All of them were drawn like magnets to St. Joseph the Worker Parish on Williams Road on Tuesday to help one cause — saving the life of six-year-old Joshua Weekes.
The bone marrow drive was organized by friends and Richmond Hospital colleagues of social worker Lia Weekes, whose son, Joshua, is fighting a rare form of leukemia and urgently needs a stem cell transplant.
And, despite the best chance of a match coming from a very select group of donors sharing Joshua’s mixed ethnicity of Filipino, British, Icelandic and Caribbean — they also had to be aged between 17 and 35 — an impressive 244 people registered and gave a swab to the Canadian Blood Services.
“I saw a newspaper article on Facebook and I knew straight away I needed to help,” said Amie Arrieta, of Surrey, who is of Filipina descent.
“I’m a regular blood donor and a nurse; I’ve never done this before but I wanted to do something to help this little boy.”
Ibsen Pfaff, of south Vancouver, is of “several South African ethnicities” and was happy to help out, after his mom “told him to.”
“My mom heard about it on the radio and told me there was a possibility I could be a match, so here I am. And I always do what my mom tells me,” Pfaff said.
Kiran Dhanwant, a colleague of Lia, is a regular blood donor but registered for the first time as a bone marrow donor on Tuesday. “I always meant to do this, but when it’s so close to home…” said Dhanwant.
“I’m mostly doing it for Josh, but we can really help so many people here. He’s a wonderful little boy, so full of life and very positive.”
Running the drive was Trudi Goels, territory manager for Canadian Blood Services, who said Tuesday’s event was “very successful.”
“However, it doesn’t stop here. There are more than 700 patients in Canada, just like Joshua, who are looking for their stem cell donor,” Goels added.
“We are looking for more groups to host stem cell drives. Schools, employers and community groups that have a large population of people between 17 and 35 are ideal hosts.
“Every event means we register more people and can get a step closer to finding a match for Joshua and all patients...”
Goels said it could take up to two weeks to determine whether someone from Tuesday is a match for Joshua.
Other ways people can help: Stop in and get swabbed at Canadian Blood Services clinics at 4750 Oak St., 888 Dunsmuir, both Vancouver, or at 15287 101 Ave. in Surrey and get swabbed there. If you didn’t make it to the drive, you can register online with OneMatch at blood.ca/en/stem-cell/register-onematch and the cheek swab package will be mailed.
Joshua, a Grade 1 DeBeck elementary student, returned home from a family vacation to the Philippines in February, only to be diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. He has spent most of the last two months in hospital receiving chemotherapy.
