Efforts continue to help find 7-year-old girl a stem cell donor

Seven-year-old Zoe Dudzianiec has undergone over 200 blood transfusions in her short life, as she fights a rare and incurable disorder. (Travis Fortnum/CTV News Windsor)

A “get swabbed” event will be held in Chatham on Monday as efforts continue to help find a stem cell donor for a local girl living with a rare bone marrow failure disorder.

Seven-year-old Zoe Dudzianiec is battling Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a rare disorder that affects bone marrow’s ability to produce red blood cells.

While there is no cure for the disorder, if Zoe were to find a stem cell match, she would no longer have to undergo the multiple blood transfusions that have become a regular part of her intensive treatment regime which she has been enduring since she was born.

In an effort to help Zoe, the Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association is hosting its first in-person “Get Swabbed” event in more than two years. The events were paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event will take place Monday, April 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the St, Clair College Chatham campus.

Anyone aged 17-35 can be swabbed to register as a new potential donor to Canada’s registry. More than 900 other Canadians are also waiting for a match. Organizers say diversity among donors is very important to the many multi-ethnic patients like Zoe.