Rahim Hasham was diagnosed with an acute form of Leukemia on April 7th, 2009. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is the overcrowding and overproduction of the white blood cells in the bone marrow. Part of his treatment may require a stem cell transplant and no one in his family is a match. Rahim, who is only 34 years old and married to Laila since 2006, lives in Calgary where he works with his father Nazir in the family business.
South Asians 4 Life: The Appeal for Stem Cell and Marrow Donors is working with Rahim’s family to increase awareness in the Ismaili community. We are in the midst of planning swabbing events with his brother Aamer for easy registration in Calgary and Toronto.
If you would like to help, please contact us at info@SA4L.org. For more information of Rahim’s campaign, visit the Join Rahim in his fight against Leukemia Facebook group.
Ismailimail 
Rahim
YAM
We wish you all the best and a speedy recovery, Insha’Allah you will get better.
Ameen.
LikeLike
Pritam,
You can help Rahim by registering yourself (if you are between the age of 17 and 50) at http://www.OneMatch.ca as well as by telling your friends and family. They will send cheek swabs so that you can mail back a sample of DNA from the inside of your cheek. It is that easy.
I am part of a group that is supporting Rahim’s family – South Asians 4 Life: The Appeal for Stem Cell and Marrow Donors (www.sa4l.org). We desperately need to get more people registered because ethnicity matters when it comes to finding a match donor.
Piali
LikeLike
Pritam – thanks for your prayers for Rahim. He is currently in the late intensification stage of his chemotherapy treatment. We are still working hard to find a stem cell match for Rahim. South Asians are severely under-represented on the bone marrow and stem cell registry.
80% of stem cell donations are now made using the Peripheral Blood Stem Collection process. This process is similar to donating blood and not painful.
20% of stem cell donations are made through the bone marrow harvest procedure. The stem cell collection site for the harvest procedure is the hipbone and not the spine. There is no pain experienced during the collection process, however donors usually experience pain in the hip-bone following the donation process. This pain is very manageable and the donors are often home the same day.
Contrary to some popular myths, donating stem cells for Leukemia patients has nothing to do with embryonic stem cell research. The donation process is in no way detrimental to the donors’ long term health.
To be able to get on the stem cell network, you have to provide a sample of your DNA using the cheek swab kits provided free of charge by OneMatch (http://www,OneMatch.ca).
We are hoping to have swab events at khanes nationally. In the meantime, you can help the lives of more than 800 Canadians (and thousands more around the world) by deciding to register yourself as a potential stem cell donor.
LikeLike
On February 10th, OneMatch and partnering student groups will be organizing three separate swab events at each of the University of Toronto Campuses (Mississauga, Scarborough and Downtown) to increase the number of potential donors on the OneMatch stem cell and marrow network. Following are the event details:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=282466316078&index=1 (Scarborough)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=258475736099&index=1 (St. George Campus)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=283141053139&index=1 (Mississauga)
LikeLike