Blood disorder boy needs help
Posted on Aug 3, 2008 and filed under Charity
Marcus Ho. Photo credit: The Star.
Four-year-old Marcus Ho was diagnosed with thalassaemia major when he was only five months old.
According to Wikipedia, thalassaemia is an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease. In thalassaemia, the genetic defect results in reduced rate of synthesis of one of the globin chains that make up hemoglobin. Reduced synthesis of one of the globin chains can cause the formation of abnormal haemoglobin molecules, and this in turn causes the anemia which is the characteristic presenting symptom of the thalassaemias.
Unfortunately, his sister, Angela, who was conceived with the hope of saving Marcus, was diagnosed with leukaemia – a blood disorder.
Blood disorder boy needs help
PETALING JAYA: Deteriorating eyesight and hearing, rashes and fatigue have failed to take away the smile from four-year-old Marcus Ho Yi Nian.
Diagnosed with thalassaemia major, a blood disorder, when he was five-months-old, Marcus has also been suffering from the effects of monthly blood transfusion and medication for the past two years.
While Marcus may be able to endure the pain of being pricked by a needle every day – part of a process to remove the excess iron from his body, time is certainly not on his side.
The excess iron in his body, a result of the frequent blood transfusion, has also started to take its toll on his heart, liver and endocrine glands, said Patricia Ong, a family friend and spokesman for the Ho family.
As such, his hope for a cure is a matching stem cell or bone marrow transplant.
Hopes for a matching stem cell transplant were dashed when the cord blood of his two-year-old sister Angela was found to be not a match.
Ironically, Angela, who was conceived with the hope of saving Marcus, was diagnosed with leukaemia – a blood disorder.
Ong said the devastated parents – father Ho Wan Ching and mother, Teng Mei Ling – sent Marcus to the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan for a bone marrow transplant recently despite financial constraints.
The transplant on July 17 costs RM235,483. Marcus is to remain in Taiwan for another six months to recover if there is no rejection of the transplant.
The Ho family, from Masai, Johor, have raised RM54,300 from various organisations and individual donors so far, Ong said.
She said Ho earned RM2,000 a month from his small Chinese medicine business while Teng was a housewife.
Ong said those who wished to help Marcus could contact his grandaunt Agatha Soh at 012-7605986.
Meanwhile, Multicultural Ladies Association president Patricia Lum said she would appeal on behalf of the Ho family for financial help during the Fusion Excel International Sdn Bhd’s Achievers Recognition Dinner at SJK (C) Chee Wen, Persiaran Subang Mewah, USJ1, Subang, today.
Lum said an anonymous donor had pledged RM10,000 to kick-start the donation drive for Marcus at the dinner to be attended by about 2,000 people.
- Source: The Star, 2nd August 2008
So if you could spare some time to contact Agatha and then send her a cheque or something, that would be extremely nice :D
