Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last summer I was very fortunate to attend a Relay for Life here in Yellowknife and I ended up walking for a bit there. While I was walking for the cause, I ended up upon this booth where we had some volunteers that were looking to sign up volunteers for donations of stem cell donors. I was very fortunate. I did the cheek swab and got my name into the database.
About a week later, it was very coincidental, but I ran into a nurse who had asked me if the NWT was doing anything in terms of stem cell research or stem cell donor campaigns, mainly because there was a young Aboriginal girl down south who couldn’t find a match, and brought Kim to my attention, so I looked into this a little bit further and wanted to bring it to the attention of the Assembly and the people of the Northwest Territories.
Stem cells are immature cells that can either become red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets. A variety of diseases and disorders are treated with stem cell transplants, including blood-related diseases such as leukemia, aplastic anemia and inherited immune disease and metabolic disorders. In this case, the patient’s diseased bone marrow is replaced with the healthy stem cells from a donor, which usually is a volunteer donor or somebody from the family. This is a very safe procedure and, in fact, anybody who donates has to go through a very small surgical process and then come out on the other side very well. In fact, most people who donate… Well, everybody who donates their blood and stem cells from their bone replenishes within six weeks.
With that said, when somebody becomes a donor and volunteers as a donor, all they have to go through is a small surgical process. They recover, but the big thing is they save somebody’s life.
I want to bring to the attention that less than 30 percent of patients who need a stem cell transplant will find a match within their family. Most people depend on an unrelated donor, meaning all these volunteers who go to these booths and get their cheeks swabbed and get into the database. A person’s best chance of finding a matching donor is within his or her ethnic group. As it currently stands, Canada’s database is 76 percent Caucasian and the other ethnicities only represent 24 percent.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, please.
---Unanimous consent granted
As I was saying, as it currently stands in Canada’s base for stem cell donors, there are 76 percent for Caucasians, 24 percent for ethnicities, and of those 24 percent for ethnicities only 0.9 percent are Aboriginal donors. That means if we have anybody that needs stem cells and is Aboriginal, it’s going to be very hard for them to find a donor.
Right now there is a special need for ethnic males in the ages 17 to 35.
Later today I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services to see what this territory is doing to help close that need for this type of help.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the gallery where we have a former Member. Mr. Ernie Bernhardt is in the House today. Good to see you.
---Applause
The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
