Hundreds of Calgarians get 'swabbed' to find bone marrow match for sick toddler
Hundreds of Calgarians from the city's South Asian community spent Sunday getting swabbed in an effort to save a Winnipeg toddler's life.
Fifteen-month-old Tegveer Minhas was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in October. His father Sukbir says the child is facing extremely low odds.
The Minhas family has been hoping for a bone marrow match, but the father says they were told the odds of finding a match outside of the South Asian community were "one in a million."
"Swabbing clinics" have been held in cities across the country in hopes of finding a match for Tegveer. Organizers Gurpreet Deol and Amrit Hehar said they hoped to test up to 500 people.
"The only chance of survival that [Tegveer] has is to find a right bone marrow donor, and unfortunately, it's a very difficult thing to accomplish," Deol said.
Hehar said the swabbing clinic is also being used to help build the bone marrow donor registry in Canada.
"We're getting such a great response from people. Everyone is asking what they can do. I'm getting messages every single day asking what they can do," she said.
Deol said the community will do whatever it can to help the boy, whose life is just starting.
"We just came together. At the end of the day, that's what communities do. That's what Sikhism does. Sikhism is really all about coming together," Deol said.
A similar clinic will be held next Sunday in Edmonton. Anyone who is interested can also get swabbed by visiting a Canadian Blood Services clinic.
