As the Richmond community continues to rally around six-year-old Joshua Weekes and his family, the little boy’s mom said he’s still in good spirits.
Another blood and bone marrow drive is being hosted in Joshua’s name — this time on May 12 by McNair secondary staff and students. And in Burnaby earlier this week, a school that boasts 70 different ethnicities hosted another drive in a bid to find a stem cell match for Richmond kid Joshua, who has a rare form of leukemia and a unique ethnicity, making it difficult to find a match.
Despite the push from the local community and beyond — including a similar drive hosted at St. Joseph’s the Worker Parish by co-workers of Joshua’s mom, Lia, more than two weeks ago — a match has yet to be found.
Weekes, however, said her son, a DeBeck elementary Grade 1 student, is still fighting while undergoing chemotherapy.
“Joshua wakes up each morning with a smile for mommy and daddy and is still quite feisty with the nurses,” she told the “He’ll give them a break once in a while but definitely keeps them on their toes.
“We are still waiting to hear about a donor match, so we are very grateful that the drives continue to happen and pray that people continue to step forward to see if they can be a match for our Joshua.”
Weekes said she continues to draw strength from the support of the community, adding that, “there are no words to describe our thankfulness.”
Trudi Goels, territory manager for Canadian Blood Services, which helps run the blood and bone marrow drives with the volunteers, said she reached out to some Richmond schools because the school board has been very supportive.
“They told me McNair was keen and it had the capacity to host the event,” said Goels.
“We need 101 people to come forward (at McNair) to donate blood on the day. We need that number to meet hospital demands.”
Goels said, although she’s not involved in the part of the process that would indicate if there’s a match for Joshua, “every single day, across the country, there’s a chance that a match could be found.”
The McNair blood and bone marrow drive is being held at the school on May 12. Everyone aged 17 and older is invited to donate blood from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Appointments can be booked at Blood.ca or download the GiveBlood app. Donors can also drop in to get swabbed and join the national stem cell registry and, perhaps, be the match that could save Joshua`s life.
To join the registry, you must be 17 to 35 years old and in general good health. For more information about the OneMatch stem cell and marrow network, visit Blood.ca.
