Stories from Canadian Blood Services

Abby is seven years old and for the next 18 months, she'll receive treatment for precursor B lymphoblastic lymphoma, a type of cancer. Read her story from her dad Drew's perspective and see how financial donors and blood transfusions are part of her story.

Blood cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the world with hundreds of Canadians requiring a donor for a stem cell transplant each year. Only a fourth of patients in need of blood stem cell donation will find a donor within their family – the rest will rely on a complete stranger to save their lives.

Every year, hundreds of Canadian patients need life-saving stem cell transplants, and most rely on the generosity of an unrelated donor.

It all started while walking to the bus stop one morning four years ago. The air was brisk, and the sun was bright in the sky. After just a few steps, Tom was out of breath and feeling dizzy. He thought it was probably nothing but decided to get checked just to be safe.

It all started with a sharp pain in Vinesha Ramasamy’s left knee. An x-ray revealed a mass. As her oncologist put it, it was “the worst case of high-grade osteosarcoma” he’d ever seen. At 15 years old she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

It's official: Canadian Blood Services’ Cord Blood Bank, a national, public health-care resource has been launched. Expectant mothers who give birth at one of our partnering hospitals are helping to build an ethnically diverse stem cell bank in Canada by donating their baby’s cord blood.