Mother of 12-year-old blood cancer patient pleads for help to find donor
Durban — The mother of a 12-year-old blood cancer patient from KwaNongoma is pleading for help from donors as her daughter is now unable to go to school due to her condition.
Inamandla Nkwanyana, who aspires to be a netball star, was diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancer, acute myeloid leukaemia, earlier this year.
Inamandla is now in need of a blood stem cell donor, and according to her mother, Londiwe Nkwanyana, there is no match for her in the donor registry.
She said her daughter has suffered for a whole year and her education has been interrupted in the process.
Nkwanyana said Inamandla’s health condition has even affected her studies as she has not set foot in school this year and she is only in Grade 6.
Nkwanyana said her daughter’s symptoms started in January 2022 when her gums bled consistently and heavily.
She then took her to hospital, where she was informed that Inamandla needed to undergo some tests and receive a blood transfusion because she had lost a lot of blood.
“My daughter was told by doctors to go home and get some rest, but nothing could have prepared me for what followed as I was informed that my child has blood cancer.”
The mother said she knew nothing about this condition.
“When the doctor told me that she has acute myeloid leukaemia I was very confused because there’s no history of cancer in our family and I knew nothing about blood cancer. But I had to stay strong for my daughter and I needed her to get better, which is why I gave consent for her to start chemotherapy immediately,” she said.
In June, after months of chemo, the family was told that Inamandla would need an unrelated donor since she did not have siblings who could be tested as possible matches.
“It has been hard because she’s my only child and I am a single mother. Her father passed away in 2019. It’s also hard because people keep asking why she does not have any hair and trying to explain what’s going on is not easy, I can tell that this whole thing is also traumatising her.”
An international non-profit bone marrow centre dedicated to fighting blood cancer, the Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei (DKMS), has reached out to people to help Inamandla by going on their website (dkms-africa.org/inamandlaneedsyou) and registering to become a blood stem cell donor as it could possibly save her life.
Daily News