The members of the Mississauga community asking the South Asian community to help Justice Manjusha Pawaji. An "event cheek swabbing" special will be held at the Hindu Heritage Centre in Mississauga on Sunday from 10 am to 17 pm, where volunteers hope to find a genetic match to Pawaji.
The 47 Pawaji was born in Indian state of Maharashtra, who immigrated to Canada a few years ago. She has studied family law school, and became one of the youngest foreign lawyers of the family born in the Greater Toronto area . Pawaji also devotes extra time to help the children's aid Society, where she helps foster parents take children.
But now Pawaji is the one who needs help. There are three months she was diagnosed with a very serious case of leukemia, and has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy to fight the disease. But medical experts believe a transplant of stem cells from bone marrow or blood cord someone with similar genetics could significantly improve the chances of Pawaji to beat leukemia.
Unfortunately, the odds are not looking great. Doctors at Pawaji estimate his chances of finding a viable match are low, perhaps due to the low number of South Asian Canadians born in medical record databases.
Consequently, many friends Pawaji came to the event plays swab to reach members of the community who has never considered becoming a donor. The small group has the support of CBS, whose spokeswoman Mary-Lynn Pride, says the event cheek swab should help increase the number of donor populations underrepresented in Canada.
"We need to get the message to the community that there is a need for donors. This is truly education due out in the community."
team Pawaji is promising a special event at the Hindu Heritage Centre which, besides the cheek pads also provide food, donor education discussions, stem cell transplant experts, and more. As for her Pawaji his hope is that one of the cheek pads correspond genetics, lead to a stem cell transplant, and potentially improve its leukemia.