NCCU student, event, seek to boost black bone-marrow donors (1509 hits)
DURHAM Every year, more than 12,000 patients in the United States are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases such as leukemia or lymphoma for which a bone-marrow transplant or a transfusion of umbilical cord blood is their best or only hope of a cure.
About 70 percent of patients who need a transplant do not have a matching donor in their family. They depend on the Be The Match Registry to find an unrelated donor or umbilical cord blood unit.
One person waiting for a bone marrow transplant is N.C. Central University sophomore Sheldon Mba.
A year ago, Mba started to have flu-like symptoms, was constantly fatigued and despite rest and diet changes, didn’t improve. He learned he had paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a progressive and destructive disease that results when the body’s red blood cells, missing a key protein, are attacked by white blood cells. Mba also has aplastic anemia, a blood disorder in which the body's bone marrow doesn't make enough new blood cells. Every two weeks he heads to the UNC Hematology Clinic for treatment, and he takes eight medications on a daily basis.
“I never know how I’ll feel,” Mba said. “That’s why I focus on dance education. I have learned that despite not being a performer, I can still be a dancer.”
