Cape Town – Saving a child’s life by becoming a bone marrow donor was an honour for University of Western Cape (UWC) law student Sibo Jimlongo, who has since been encouraging others to follow in her footsteps.
This year was a big year for the 25-year-old who not only wrote her final exams, but also donated her life-saving bone marrow stem cells to a desperately ill child.
“There is a bigger picture. It is not about you. It is about the next person.
“You are saving a life so someone else can do the things they envision,” Jimlongo said.
She saw her donation as an opportunity to educate others.
A bone marrow donor is usually found within one’s ethnic group, and South Africa urgently needs more black donors to save patients with leukaemia and other blood diseases.
“I am quite a giver by nature. If I am healthy and I am able to give the blood, it is the least I can do. It would be selfish of me not to give.”
Early last year, a bone marrow recruiter approached Jimlongo while she was donating blood on campus at UWC.
“She explained what bone marrow donation is all about - that a stem cell match needs to be like somebody’s clone, and that ethnicity plays a big part,” Jimlongo said.
To her surprise, in January she was phoned by the SA Bone Marrow Registry asking if she would be prepared to have further blood tests, as she might be a match for a patient.
After a slew of tests, another call came: she was indeed a perfect match.
Jimlongo’s donation was scheduled before exams, later this year.
For four days prior to this, she had Neupogen injections (which she chose to administer herself) to stimulate her bones to produce extra stem cells.
On the morning of the donation, she and two friends drove to the nearby Netcare Kuilsriver Hospital, a state-of-the-art facility which opened in 2002.
“It took about six hours. One of my friends was as fascinated by the process as I was.
“We have watched a lot of Grey’s Anatomy,” Jimlongo said.
From a tube in her femoral vein, her blood was sent into a machine where the stem cells were separated; the rest of her blood was returned to her.
“Afterwards I was quite emotional, thinking how the bag of stem cells would now go to whoever needed it. The SA Bone Marrow Registry is great.
“They go to the ends of the Earth to ensure that everything goes smoothly.”
For upcoming bone marrow donor drives, please see www.sabmr.co.za, or find the SA Bone Marrow Registry on Facebook.
To register as a bone marrow donor, phone 021 447 8638, or email [email protected]