Life for Dr. Fazeela took a tragic turn after her husband, Dr. Abdul Shameem, passed away due to blood cancer. He was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in March this year. His best chance of survival was a bone marrow transplant, for which a matching blood stem cell donor was needed. Dr. Fazeela got the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing done for their three children, hoping that one of them would be a suitable match.
Unfortunately, their son and daughter were found to be only 5/10 and 6/10 match, respectively. Desperate to save her husband’s life, they reached out to DATRI, to help find a matching blood stem cell donors. It was a race against time, and in the past, two and half years he had faced a similar battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). After undergoing 2 cycles of chemotherapy, he experienced a period of remission, but eventually, he underwent seven cycles and life seemed to return to normal for a while.
In March this year, however, Dr. Abdul Shameem’s condition worsened, and his blood count plummeted. The family opted to proceed with the 6/10 match, with their son as the donor. However, even before the transplant could take place his condition deteriorated, and he succumbed to blood cancer.
Despite this profound personal loss, Dr. Fazeela chose to move forward and make a positive impact in honor of her late husband. She realized that the HLA typing report she had obtained for her children could be valuable for others suffering from blood cancer or blood disorders. By sharing the HLA Typing report with DATRI, she hoped to increase awareness about stem cell donation in India and contribute to enriching the databases of registries in the country.
Dr. Fazeela emphasized that low awareness about stem cell donation was a significant reason why her husband could not find a matching donor in time. Her desire to help others and potentially offer them a second chance at life is driven by the memory of her husband’s struggle and untimely demise. Dr. Fazeela shared “I have immense faith in humanity and I am hopeful that someday my children would give the opportunity to gift not one but three lives. Perhaps that would be the best gift for my husband and he will be happy to see how his family is making a difference in the lives of others.
We at DATRI are overwhelmed with the gesture of Dr. Fazeela and we feel that this will inspire many others who have their HLA typing report to come forward and share with us and get the opportunity to be a lifesaver.
This is your chance to gift a life. You can share your HLA report at hlareport@datri.org