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Help Mel Overcome Leukaemia!

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Mel is a daughter, sister, business owner, world traveler, mental health advocate.

She is the kind of person who makes everyone she meet, feel comfortable and heard. At 29 years of age, she was feeling fatigued while skiing, and only a week later was diagnosed with leukaemia.

This campaign is organised by Mel's closest friends Jay, Premi, Peach, Lyna, Kriss and her husband, Rackley. Below is an account from Rackley's point of view:

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Update: 30th of April, 2020
The Bone Marrow Transplant

It's been seven months since Mel was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. It's been an exhausting process of hospitals, chemo and constant attention to her health. Yesterday she finally received the bone marrow transplant that we have been waiting for since we were first told it would be needed in October last year.

The preparation for the transplant involves giving a very strong course of chemotherapy in addition to multiple immunosuppressants. The chemo kills all of her blood cells, existing bone marrow and other fast producing cells, while the immunosuppressants prevent her body from rejecting the donation. This was an extremely difficult period of time for her, as she faced continuous nausea, vomiting and pain as the chemo attacked the fast producing cells that line her mouth and throat.

The process of a bone marrow transplant is not the procedure many people envision. Instead of a direct transplant of bone marrow, the recipient receives the donors stem cells. The stem cells are gathered from the donor after five days of injections, the stem cells are collected in a similar fashion to a blood donation.

The transplant procedure takes a little more than an hour and is just like receiving blood transfusion by drip, but with far more premedication. 



The Donor
To find a matched donor for Mel has been a hard and difficult process, and yet we are incredibly fortunate to have found a full match for her. In total, the search of international donors returned four full matches for her, and yet it took, three months before one could be confirmed:

- The first donor in Thailand was unavailable to donate,
- The second donor from China unable to be contacted,
- The third donor said yes. He was from Hubei, China, but before the preparations could begin, the pandemic begun and any chance of using his donation was gone.

At this point it looked like Mel's brother would need to donate for her, however he was a half match which would have added far more risk, to an already risky procedure.

Finally we were told there was a chance that a donor from Canada who hadn't shown up in the first round of searching, was a possible full match. Within a month we heard that he was willing to donate, and confirmed that he was a healthy, full match.

With the Covid19 pandemic raging around the world, the task of getting the stem cells to Mel created an additional challenge. Luckily, Mel's new stem cells were frozen, and transported by airfreight, from Quebec to Singapore.

 

Next Steps
While the transplant is a fantastic step, there is still a long way to go in her recovery. We expect to remain in hospital for 20 more days, potentially longer if there are any complications. The next three weeks or so will be spent waiting for the first signs that her new stem cells are creating the all important bone marrow she needs.

Once discharged we will be regularly returning to the hospital for checkups and more blood transfusions. She will commence a two year course of  sorafenib, a US$600 a week medication as a preventative for any relapse of her leukaemia. 

In theory the full matched transplant should settle into her bone marrow and start producing her new blood and immune system. However the reality is that graft vs host disease will remain a real threat to her body, only time will tell whether the donors stem cells create an immune system that will work with her body, or will attack her organs.

We are incredibly appreciative of all your support, it's been a long grind for us in getting this far, but all yourmessages, donations and offers to help in anyway have been greatly appreciate by Melissa, her family, friends and myself.

Thank you, so much.

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Original story

Mel is the love of my life, and at the end of September, an unimaginable nightmare begun:

Mel has leukemia.

At 29 years old, she was happily skiing only a week before the diagnosis.

We have made it through the first round of chemo, but there is still two more to go before she can get the lifesaving bone marrow transplant.

This could happen to any of us and I'm still in shock that it's happening to my Mel. I can't count the tears we have cried. We are heartbroken, and scared.

We are afraid we won't be able to afford the treatment that can save her life.

Hear how much Mel means to her friends around the world:


Here's how a sore throat turned to cancer and chemo within 3 days:

September 28, 2019
Saturday night: 


For the past week Mel had been battling fevers and a sore throat. We'd gotten antibiotics from our local doctor, but it did nothing to reduce her pain or swelling. So just before midnight, we jumped into the car and drove the 45 minutes to the hospital in the hope we could reduce her pain.

We waited four hours when we got there because they thought it was a sore throat. They gave her medication and she threw up immediately. They opened an IV line and by chance took a blood test. 

If she hadn’t thrown up, they wouldn’t have taken a blood test and would have sent us home.

An hour later, they said someone would come speak to us about the results. They moved us to a private room and wheeled Mel in on her bed.


September 29, 2019
Sunday morning:

At 8:30am a doctor came and told us the worst: 

Mel has acute myeloid leukaemia. Her white blood cell producers are rapidly growing and replacing the healthy cells in her body, killing the other important blood producers in her bone marrow.

Her white blood cell count was 171, a normal and healthy count is 4-10. 

Her body has malfunctioned and is killing her. 

Within a few hours, they took Mel into intensive care, inserted a tube through the vein in her neck to take blood from her heart, they put it through a machine to separate out some of the white blood cells before returning the rest into her body. This was a quick fix to buy us some time before we could start the chemotherapy.

October 1, 2019
Tuesday morning: 

He received a plasma transfusion to prepare for chemo. A slightly itchy neck turned into hives all over her body and excruciating pain in her stomach, her blood pressure dropped dangerously low.

The transfusion gave her body an allergic reaction that could have killed her. Five doctors and a room full of nurses worked on her desperately. They gave her high strength painkillers and antihistamines (Fentanyl and Phenergan) to stop the reaction and the crippling pain she was experiencing. 

She fought, survived and spent the rest of the day passed out from the drugs they had to give her.

Tuesday night: 

Chemo started once they knew she wasn’t going to die and her body had calmed down. Chemo treatment happens twice a day. It’s exhausting and is killing her immune system. 

Chemo kills cancer along with your body in an attempt to try save it. Now she’s going from a massive white blood cell count to zero. These are the good cells that give your body an immune system.

In the next few weeks we expect fever, vomiting, hair loss, fatigues, mouth sores, and her body is susceptible to all kinds of infections. 

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We need your support: 

Mel had been visiting me in New Zealand to meet my family for the first time. She doesn’t qualify for medical coverage here and at $85,000, the first round of chemotherapy has used the majority of her insurance.

We need help to pay for her upcoming medical bills.

Over the next 6 months we have a daunting process of treatments, hospitalisation and waiting to see if we have beaten it, these things are gripping her with fear, while I am anxious about how we are going to pay these costs to keep her alive.

Mel is fighting to stay alive. Help us fight for her. 

With much love, 
Rackley & Mel's family & friends 

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Important notes:

Donations are charged in USD, and as Jay is a US citizen, he will be collecting the donations under his name for direct transfer to Mel. He is Mel's best friend and has been a great support to Mel throughout the leukemia as well as the years before.


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Donations 

  • Karl Martin
    • $500 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $500 
    • 3 yrs
  • Jakob Bodendieck
    • $50 
    • 3 yrs
  • Steve Glaveski
    • $50 
    • 3 yrs
  • Madison Taskett
    • $20 
    • 3 yrs
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Fundraising team (2)

Jay Meistrich
Organizer
New York, NY
Melissa Ng
Team member
This team raised $109,059 from 722 other donations.

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