After spending decades serving the North Shore, Nancy Taylor is now in need of help.
The longtime Lynn Valley resident and volunteer with North Vancouver RCMP’s community policing division was diagnosed with cancer late last year and is in need of a life-saving stem cell donor.
Canadian Blood Services and the North Vancouver RCMP are hosting a stem cell drive at the 14th Street detachment Thursday in hopes of finding a match for Taylor, and to beef up the stem cell registry. “I ended up just going to the hospital on Nov. 15, just ready to faint. That’s when they told me I had leukemia,” Taylor said.
Taylor started chemotherapy the next day. “I take 20 pills probably every day and every fourth day, I get chemo through my spine and brain and the three days after that, I get chemo through intravenous,” she said.
More than weathering the illness and damaging effects of the chemo, Taylor must also contend with the shock of the diagnosis.
“It’s like a rollercoaster. I try to be really strong and positive and every so often, I’ll just break down and cry,” she said. But Taylor’s remission and recovery is going to be heavily contingent on whether she can get suitable donation of stem cells, the building block cells that allow the rest of the body to regenerate from the cancer and treatment.
But being of Dutch and Indonesian descent, finding the right match is proving very difficult. Unlike donating blood, the risk of a recipient’s body rejecting the cells is much higher if a close match can’t be found and stem cell matches fall largely along ethnic lines.
The donor drive targets males ages 17 to 35, the demographic with the most and healthiest stem cells, and specifically those young males who are of diverse ancestry.
Anyone who gets swabbed will be added to the 26-million-name international OneMatch stem cell and bone marrow registry, said David Patterson, director of donor relations, Canadian Blood Services.
“Currently our database is about 70 per cent Caucasian and that doesn’t really mirror Canadian society. Our goal, as well as finding a match for Nancy, is to increase the diversity of that,” Patterson said. “It’s an important differentiator for people to understand that based on their heritage. … they may be the only person in the world able to save Nancy’s life or someone like Nancy in Canada or around the world.”
Anyone who is selected as a match will be called and asked to undergo a few tests to ensure they’re healthy enough to donate. In 80 per cent of the cases, it’s done with just two needles.
“Your blood comes out of one arm, goes through a machine that removes the stem cells, and the blood goes back into the other arm. Simple,” Patterson said. “Two hours in a hospital bed with lots of loving people around you, thanking you for saving somebody’s life.”
About one in five must donate from their bone marrow directly. They can expect a bit of a bruise as a result but that’s still a small price to pay given the outcome, Patterson said.
Taylor, along with her supporters at the RCMP and City of North Vancouver, are hoping to see a lineup of diverse young men at the detachment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday.
“Hopefully lots of people show. I really want to live. I want to do so much,” Taylor said, referring to riding her motorcycle, seeing her son and daughter get married and, in time, grandkids.
“There are so many people now with cancer. For the healthy ones out there, be aware you could be saving someone’s life. Talk to your kids because between 17 and 35 you’re kind of into your own world and don’t really realize how much you can do and save someone’s life.”
North Vancouver RCMP is putting the call out to all first responders from across the North Shore to come get swabbed on Thursday.
“North Vancouver RCMP is pleased to not only be supporting one of our detachment’s staff members in trying to obtain a stem cell match but also bring much needed awareness for OneMatch that could potentially save a person’s life,” said Supt. Chris Kennedy, officer in charge of the North Vancouver RCMP.
