April 11, 2022, 05:44 PM
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A family in Singapore is urgently appealing for bone marrow donors on behalf of Kelly Fan, who has been diagnosed with blood cancer.
Appeal on social media
A dedicated Instagram page (@matchforkel) was set up to call on members of the public to sign up and join the Singapore Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP).
Fan's family, which includes Singaporean actress Pamela Oei, have also shared posts across various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.
These posts have been making rounds online and caught the attention of local politicians and celebrities, such as K Shanmugam, Carrie Tan, Rebecca Lim, Lim Pei Fen, Terence Cao, and Rosalyn Lee.
Survived cancer once
According to the post, Fan is a cancer survivor.
She overcame Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, another type of blood cancer, around 10 years ago when she found a "miracle match" on the international database of donors.
After recovering from the disease following a bone marrow transplant, Fan has since gotten married.
She gave birth in September 2020 and is now a mother to an 18-month-old boy.
Image from @matchforkel/Instagram.
Fan's sister-in-law and Singaporean actress Oei wrote: "The past decade has given us Kel at her best - she is now a wife, a new mother, and has always been a doting daughter, sister and friend to all."
Oei also said Fan is now in "a similar, yet different situation" 10 years later in 2022.
A race against time to find donors
Fan is currently battling aggressive terminal blood cancer, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which starts in the bone marrow.
In response to Mothership's queries, a #matchforkel spokesperson said Fan is currently focusing on her treatment.
According to the post, Fan is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment, but she urgently needs a suitable bone marrow donor.
But there are no suitable matches for Fan on the international registries, and her previous "miracle match" donor is also not a viable option.
Fan's siblings are also not full matches, the social media post said.
It is a race against time to find Fan a suitable bone marrow donor, as the cancer cells can rapidly move through the bloodstream and spread to other parts of the body.
How you can help
Signing up as a donor is a straightforward process that only requires interested individuals between 18 to 49 to complete a self-administered cheek swab and registration form.
These will be mailed to prospective donors who have registered their interest to volunteer at no cost and comes with a prepaid reply envelope for individuals to submit their swab kits.
However, the registration process is lengthy, and donors may only be listed on BMDP's register up to two months later.
BMDP is Singapore's only public register providing unrelated donors for patients with terminal blood-related diseases.
To find out more about Fan and join BMDP's register, you can click here and here.
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Top image from @matchforkel/Instagram
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