For nine-year-old Rose-Leigh Usher, today marks the beginning of a new journey.
|||Durban - For nine-year-old Rose-Leigh Usher, today marks the beginning of a new journey.
In February, Daily News readers opened their hearts and wallets and raised more than R600 000 she needed for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant.
This morning, Rose-Leigh was to be admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town so that Professor Nicolas Novitzky, head of haematology at UCT, can start the transplant process.
Rose-Leigh has been fighting hepatosplenic gamma-delta T-cell lymphoma, an aggressive type of cancer, since June.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Novitzky confirmed that the stem cells that will be transplanted into Rose-Leigh in the next few days have been delivered from a cord stem cell bank in the US to Groote Schuur.
“We are expecting Rose-Leigh at the hospital tomorrow and will begin preparing her for the process,” he said yesterday.
In the next few days, Novitzky said, Rose-Leigh’s entire immune system would have to be ablated (destroyed) to ensure the engraftment of the cells.
Once this has been done, the cells will then be infused. In the next phase, Rose-Leigh will remain in strict isolation to prevent infection.
Once out of isolation, Rose-Leigh will continue with immunosuppressive drugs for six months to a year.
For Rose-Leigh’s father, Owen Usher, no words could express the joy that he felt.
Usher said to hear the excitement in his daughter’s voice made the waiting worthwhile.
“I would sincerely like to thank every single person in this country and abroad who made this operation possible for her. They have given her a second chance in life,” he said.
Knowing the long road that still awaited Rose-Leigh, Usher said he was praying for her.
mpume.madlala@inl.co.za
Daily News