The Gift of Life’s failed search has a positive outcome
27-yr-old Roni Cohen was diagnosed with leukaemia a month before her wedding in Israel and was given a life-saving bone marrow transplant from her brother, after a worldwide search including in Australia by Gift of Life, that tested over 16,000 people failed to find a perfect match.
Roni and Bar Armon
Sydney’s Sephardi Synagogue in Sydney cooperated with Gift of Life in Sydney to find a match for Roni but throughout Australia, unfortunately, there were very few Jewish folks with the appropriate ethnic descent of Yemenite and or Moroccan background. Although Roni’s older sibling is only a 50 % match, the treatment was carried out six weeks ago and Roni underwent a pluripotent bone marrow transplant, a newer implantation method that is also possible with lower match percentages.
The Gift of Life’s Shula Endrey-Walder told J-Wire: “Roni is at home recovering from the process. Let’s pray all goes well.”
Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, who is from the matching ethnic group, Yemenite, was among those to get tested to join the database as a potential donor.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are descended from Yemenite Jewish immigrants, but only a fraction of them have registered as bone marrow donors.
Roni and her fiance Bar Armon were married in the hospital a month before the transplant occurred.
While the search did not produce a match in this case, Gift of Life has done incredible work worldwide: gaining over 314,000 registered donors, making over 15,000 matches leading to 3,300 transplants.
I am really hoping for Roni.