Delicious breakfast hosted by the Sunflower Fund.

The Sunflower Fund celebrated this Women’s Month by holding its annual breakfast at the Fairway Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort in Randpark Ridge.

By hosting the breakfast, the fund is able to create awareness, educate, recruit and increase the number of stem cell donors registered on the South African Bone Marrow Registry. Several speakers shared their experiences, stories and difficulties, while dealing with cancer.

Regional Manager for Gauteng, Shelby Zimmerman, said that 75 percent of patients diagnosed with leukaemia (a blood cancer) were under the age of 25 and that the fund needed to raise money for possible donors to be tested. “We are urging all residents between the ages of 18 and 45 to join the South African Bone Marrow Registry as stem cell donors,” she said. She further explained that each test cost the fund R2 000 as it was a DNA test.

Zimmerman explained that DNA was not determined by a person’s blood group but rather by ethnicity as each race has a different DNA structure and that the fund aims to educate and spread awareness about how to become a donor. Yolandi Mare is the mother of six-year-old Jordan Pelser [https://www.facebook.com/JordansBraveJourney/?fref=ts] who has been struggling with a rare form of leukaemia since he was three years old.

Mare explained that having a child with leukaemia was devastating and was also very expensive. “Luckily I had medical aid cover and so far they’ve spent about R1.7 million and I personally chipped in about R20 000. After eight rounds of chemotherapy, Jordan is still in remission but if it ever had to return, he would need a stem cell transplant,” she said. She pointed out that her youngest son was not a match for Jordan and that if the need arose they would have to look for a donor within the public sphere and she was positive that the Sunflower Fund’s database of donors would be able to assist.

Details: Sunflower Fund: 080 012 1082.

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