Midranders answer the call to save Mighty Mack

Car dealership Mini Midrand hosted the South African National Blood Service for a blood drive on 10 June to support Mackenzie Friedman, a five-month-old girl who has been diagnosed with leukaemia.

Mackenzie, better known as Mighty Mack, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia just over a month ago. She was diagnosed with a strain that is rare among children of her age.

Mackenzie’s aunt Amy Stanton said the strain was extremely aggressive, which meant that regardless of the amount of chemotherapy that Mackenzie had, it was highly likely that she would continue to relapse unless she received a bone marrow transplant.

“In order to have a bone marrow transplant, she needs to find a bone marrow match and the chances of finding a match are one in a
100 000. Once Mack was diagnosed, she was hospitalised and isolated because it affects her immune system hugely. She has undergone one round of chemotherapy and she has had four operations, various operations to put in a Hickman line, a device used to administer chemo and other drugs as well as your blood transfusions, and to remove it.

“She also requires blood and platelet transfusions every couple of days to keep her fighting blood cells up, the leukaemia destroys those so the blood transfusions are critical to her at the moment,” Stanton added.

She said they had decided to reach out to the South African National Blood Service and the South African Bone Marrow Registry regarding numerous drives they have had to try and organise around the country, and both organisations have been incredibly supportive.

Stanton said they did come across some challenges in getting people to donate blood platelets and getting children and people to go out and register. “I also think that people think that the bone marrow transplant is quite an invasive procedure. It’s really not, it’s almost like doing a blood transfusion.”

She encouraged more people to register as many more children were affected and needed the same help. “The bone marrow donations including the blood and platelet transfusions are just as crucial to get her through this treatment, she is going to require a couple more rounds of chemotherapy before the actual transplant. If we find a match then they are hoping to do the transplant in September.”

Sales and marketing person at Mini Midrand, Megan Dreyer who organised the drive said it was all about Mack and the impact she had made on blood donations and bone marrow registrations.

“There has been a massive uptake to help this little warrior and many others like her. Through this we are hoping to raise more awareness and action. We want people to know that donating blood is not that scary, it’s a quick poke in your arm, you sit for a couple of minutes and then get a cookie and juice at the end. You could save three lives by donating once,” Dreyer concluded.

Details: For more information please follow Mighty Mack on her Facebook page @MightyMack21, to find out more on how to donate visit https://sanbs.org.za/.

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