April 23, 2024
Tamaiti seeks bone marrow donor
The whānau of Rotorua 9-year old Te Waarakihi Hooper Felise is encouraging Māori to register as bone marrow donors.
Te Waarakihi has aplastic anaemia where his bone marrow has stopped producing the red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body, the white blood cells that fight infection fighting cells and the platelets that form clots to stop bleeding.
His whānau has started a Give A Little page to help fund his travel to Auckland’s Starship hospital for regular immune suppression therapy.
Grandmother Mahara Hooper a compatible donor for a bone marrow transplant hasn’t been identified from within the whanau, so they’re casting the net wider in what’s a race against the clock.
“Our best ethnicity for Te Waarakihi is Māori or Pacifica. He is Tokelauan and Māori. We’ve been informed by the doctors in the bone marrow registry that that ethnicity is one that he needs. Māori and Pacifika are very low on the bone register, and we are pushing hard for more donations to be made,” she says.
People can contact the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry and ask for a test to see if they are compatible to help Te Waraarakihi or someone else in need of a bone marrow transfer.