Mother’s desperate quest

A transplant of rare bone marrow is all that can save the life of her young son

PEOPLE passing by Wendy Kakala in Greenacres Shopping Centre might think of her as just another person working for a cleaning company, not knowing she is a mother on a mission and that their bone marrow could save her child’s life.

Wendy is being joined by the Igazi Foundation, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) and the Volkswagen (VW) Community Trust in a desperate search for bone marrow for her only child, Lutho, who was diagnosed with aplastic anemia late last year.

Aplastic anemia is a disease that damages the bone marrow. A bone marrow transplant is now his only hope.

Lutho does not have any siblings and with only 4 000 black bone marrow donors in South Africa there is almost no chance to find a suitable donor for him.

Meanwhile Lutho, who is a keen sportsman playing cricket and soccer, has been taken out of school as he is more prone to infection.

“He must do home schooling now,” Wendy said.

Lutho does not want pictures taken of him while he is sick. “He told me, mommy, I don’t want my friends to see me so sick,” she said.

The foundation’s Zodwa Dube said they were helping Wendy find a suitable donor for Lutho.

They recently received a R65 000 donation from the Volkswagen Community Trust.

“Testing for bone marrow is very expensive and we don’t have enough money to test everybody. Most people feel they want to donate when they hear a sad story but after a while they do not want to donate. Prospective matches will have to take medication that prompts their bodies to produce more bone marrow and this can be very painful,” Dube said.