Unfortunately, as Graham is adopted, he doesn\\\'t have an HLA-identical sibling to act as a donor for him. So the Red Cross here in Australia searched the Bone Marrow Registries worldwide for 9 months to find a match.
Graham has a rare tissue type and a match was not found.
Thanks to generous donations of over $400,000, Graham was able to travel from his home in Melbourne, Australia to Seattle in the USA for a revolutionary, life-saving stem cell treatment in April 2008.
On Wed 6th August, he was the 8th person in the world to receive a Stem Cell Transplant using stem cells grown in the lab from an umbilical cord.
The treatment was a complete success and he is now leukaemia free.
He is back in Melbourne, recovering from the treatment but still has outstanding medical bills of $416,000.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has begun enrollment for the first Phase I safety study approved by the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the use of a child’s own umbilical cord blood stem cells for traumatic brain injury in children. The study is being performed in conjunction with Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, UTHealth’s primary children’s teaching hospital.
To view Multimedia News Release, go to http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/cordblood/48021/
Phiten, the pioneer of AQUA-METAL™ materials and innovator of metal-infused technology, and professional baseball players C.J. Wilson, Josh Hamilton and J.B. Shuck have teamed up with Be The Match, the nonprofit organization dedicated to helping patients with blood cancers receive life-saving bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants. To support Be The Match and raise awareness of the national Be The Match Registry®, Phiten has designed a limited edition Phiten x Be The Match Tornado Necklace with sales benefiting the cause, and the three pro baseball players have been named Ambassadors of Hope by Be The Match.
To view Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/mnr/64376-phiten-and-mlb-players-for-be-the-match-bone-marrow-donor-registry
