November 22, 2012
Polynesian donor crisis sparks fun run for dream
A fun run in Hamilton this weekend aims to raise awareness of the need to get more Māori and Pacific Island people to register as bone marrow donors.
Keri Topperwein started the Dream Chaser Foundation after her 3-year-old son Chace died of leukaemia when no suitable donor was found.
She says that’s despite searching through an international registry of almost 19 million potential donors.
"There’s only about 7000 people registered as Māori and Pacific Island so that makes our pool of finding people much smaller, and that’s down to people not knowing or having cultural reasons for not donating. It’s nice to be unique in the world but when you are trying to find a match being unique is not such a great thing," Ms Topperwein says.
She says registering a donor involves giving a simple blood sample to create a tissue match.
There’s a 10am start for tomorrow’s Dream Chaser Fun Run around Hamilton Lake, with runners able to go one, two or three times around the three and a half kilometre course.