Ger de Heer (73) from Oosterhout has a rare form of blood cancer, myelofibrosis. If no stem cell donor is found for him, he will not have more than a year to live. Ger was diagnosed in August. Since then, he has had to go to the Amphia hospital in Breda every two weeks for a blood transfusion. “That’s how they keep me going,” he says. But his hopes are pinned on a stem cell transplant.
With a stem cell donation, the chance of a match between donor and patient is very small. 1 in 50,000, as Ger knows. A very large group of registered donors is therefore needed to find one match for him. And so Ger pulls out all the stops to recruit stem cell donors. Reason for him to tell his story now.
“If it comes too late for me, then at least I have done something for the people who need a stem cell transplant after me. But I have not given up hope for myself either,” he says optimistically.
“Symbolic. I received blood and he gave blood.”
A few weeks ago Ger was in the hospital for a blood transfusion. He then received a text from his son with a photo of him donating blood. “Symbolic. I received blood and he gave blood. However, it immediately made me wonder whether my son is now automatically a stem cell donor. And that turned out not to be the case. He had to separate himself for that register with Matchisthe Dutch center for stem cell donors and he has now done that.”
His son’s app gave Ger an idea. In order to acquire a large number of stem cell donors at once, a link must be established between the Sanquin and Matchis databases. “We have 400,000 blood donors in the Netherlands. If a quarter of them also register as stem cell donors, we will instantly have 100,000 more donors.”
“Thanks for the idea.”
Inquiries with Sanquin reveal that Ger’s idea is not new. “But,” says the blood bank spokesperson, “kudos for the idea.” As far as he is concerned, all the attention paid to recruiting donors is more than welcome. But according to him, due to privacy legislation, it is not possible to simply link the databases of the two organizations.
According to him, this does not alter the fact that Sanquin and Matchis already work together in the recruitment of donors. This is how they refer to each other on their websites. And people who donate blood are also made aware of the possibility of stem cell donation and vice versa. “After all, the agreement between both donors is obvious,” says the spokesperson. “In both cases you are willing to do something for someone you don’t know yourself.”
“I couldn’t wish for a better Christmas present.”
Back to Ger’s story. He now knows that his sister is no match for him. This is not yet clear about his children. And although he has an optimistic outlook on life, this optimism ‘is taking a hit every week’, he says. “I’m not complaining, but time is running out. How wonderful it would be if I received the redeeming news in December that a match had been found for me. I couldn’t wish for a better Sinterklaas or Christmas present.”
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Want to become a stem cell donor? You can read how that works here