My father used to be in good health without any medical issues.
One day we noticed sudden changes on our father’s health. He looked fatigue and exhausted and there was a shocking drop of his weight. We insisted to take him to the hospital during one of our family gatherings to do a full checkup on him to assure our self that he was fine. After several laboratory tests were taken, the physician informed us that our father has blood cancer. This was shockingly terrible news for all of us.
My father had faith and he accepted the news, he started visiting the clinic routinely to check on his health. After a while we noticed paleness on his face and he became more fatigue and the disease was progressing day after day. We did not expect the cancer to affect our father this fast and this much. The decision from the doctor was to give him chemotherapy and blood transfusion every week to maintain his health. The doctor concluded that the only option to be cured was to go through stem cell transplantation.
The doctor and his team started to take blood samples from the family looking for a stem cell donor for my father. Unfortunately, no one of us matched our father’s HLA. For a moment, we thought that was the end of the road. We had to accept it and there will be no cure at all. Then, his physician told us that he will contact the national stem cells donor registry to look for a match donor for our father from outside the family by looking through the records of Saudi DNA database. Luckily, we found a matching donor. The registry called the donor and he accepted to donate his stem cells to my father. This was great news for all my family. The hospital began the treatment and within a month my father received the stem cell transplantation after collecting it from the donor that we have never met. Thereafter, my father began to get better as his health started to improve.
It has been 6 months since our father did the surgery. He is feeling better and he is in good health. My father started to live his life normally again.
I would like to thank the donor for saving our father’s life. We wish to meet him or her one day and express our gratitude in person for the gift he gave to our fatherin saving his life.
Thank you to Saudi Stem Cell Donor Registry. Thanks to every person who contributed in saving my father’s life.