Independent.ie

Beth gets vital surgery thanks to 'hero' donors

By Breda Heffernan
Monday April 14 2008

THIS is two-year-old Beth Prendergast who will today undergo vital surgery in her ongoing battle against leukaemia, thanks to the kindness of blood platelet donors.

Beth, from Summerhill in Co Meath, was diagnosed with the illness late last year and since then donors have already come to her aid 31 times.

Despite facing her gruelling 32nd operation today, the youngster was all smiles yesterday as she helped to launch Platelet Donation Awareness Day 2008 on behalf of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) and the Irish Cancer Society (ICS).

The campaign hopes to recruit another 2,000 platelet donors to help cancer sufferers.

She will undergo a bone marrow transplant at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin later today with marrow donated from her four-year-old brother Harry. During the operation she will be completely dependent on platelet transfusions.

Yesterday her mum Kim, who is from Canada, thanked the donors who have already helped her daughter saying they are "heroes in my eyes".

She and her husband David, who is originally from Britain, took Beth to the ICS headquarters in Dublin for the launch, where they are pictured.

It was one of her few outings from the hospital over the past five months and her first since January.

"Beth was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in November 2007 and since then she has had 31 platelet transfusions," explained Kim.

- Breda Heffernan

One platelet donation can help save up to three lives

Irish Blood Transfusion Service in partnership with Irish Cancer Society make urgent plea for more platelet donors

At an event held yesterday in the Irish Cancer Society, 23-month-old Beth Prendergast and her family launched Platelet Donation Awareness Day 2008 which takes place today on Monday, April 14th. Beth suffers from acute myeloid leukaemia and is receiving platelets as part of her intensive treatment. Platelet Donation Awareness Day is being organised by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) in partnership with the Irish Cancer Society to put out an urgent plea for more people to donate platelets and give life-saving treatment to cancer patients.

Platelets are small blood cells that are essential for clotting and are present in the blood of all healthy people. Chemotherapy often damages patients’ bone marrow cells where the platelets are made and make the patients prone to spontaneous bleeding. Cancer patients, especially those with leukaemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow) often depend on platelet transfusions during their chemotherapy or bone marrow transplants in order for them to tolerate and benefit from their treatment.

According to the most recent statistics from the National Cancer Registry there were 26,700 new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2005. Furthermore there were 371 new cases of leukaemia diagnosed that year, 642 new cases of lymphoma and 202 new cases of multiple myeloma.

The National Cancer Registry estimates that approximately 28,200 number of cases of cancer will be diagnosed this year and the IBTS needs at least 22,000 platelet donations this year in order to meet the current demand. On average the IBTS issues over 500 units per week to Irish hospitals and 90% of these are used in the treatment of cancer patients.

Speaking at the launch was Kim Prendergast, baby Beth's mother. “Beth was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in November 2007 and since then she has had 31 platelet transfusions. Tomorrow, Beth is having a bone marrow transplant with bone marrow donated by her brother Harry, and she will be completely dependent on platelets. Platelet donors are heroes in my eyes and I am so full of admiration for their selflessness. We are incredibly thankful to all those who donate and we encourage other people to find out more about platelet donation as there are many other adults and children like Beth who need platelets every day.”

Also speaking about Platelet Donation Awareness Day, Dr William Murphy, National Medical Director, Irish Blood Transfusion Service said, “The demand for platelets in Ireland has increased by 50% over the past five years largely because of the number of new cancer cases, and this demand is going to increase steadily. The National Cancer Registry estimates that in 2010, 29,800 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed. Our platelet donation awareness campaign is proving to be successful in that we recruited twice as many new donors in 2007 compared to 2006 but we still have a very long way to go. Donation is simple, taking on average just 45 - 70 minutes. In this short time a donor can help save up to three lives.”

Platelet Donation Awareness Day will also mark the launch of a promotional DVD titled Can you help us to help cancer patients? The DVD will form an integral part of an intensive three-month campaign to recruit new donors and will be distributed to a target list of healthcare workers, particularly those caring for cancer patients. The DVD will also be available on request from the Platelet Clinic at the National Blood Centre for use in the corporate and community setting.

Speaking about the launch of the DVD, Dr William Murphy added, “The aim of the this DVD is to encourage people not only to consider donating platelets themselves, but to pass on information about platelet donation to family and friends, and the general public. One of our biggest hurdles is that the general public know very little about the requirement of platelets and the importance of platelets for cancer patients.”

The process of platelet donation is known as “apheresis”, a special type of donation which separates the platelets from the rest of the blood during donation. To meet the demand for platelet transfusions in Ireland the IBTS collects platelets in two ways, pooled and apheresis. Pooled platelets are processed from whole blood donations. It takes four whole blood donations to produce one dose of platelets for patients. An apheresis donation collects the same amount of platelets as those pooled from 8-12 whole blood donations.

It is important to limit patients’ exposure to many donors and therefore collecting platelets through apheresis is preferable to provide the safest possible product for the patient. Furthermore the shelf life of pooled platelets is only five days and the shelf life of apheresis platelets can be extended from five to seven days. At present, only approximately 50% of platelets supplied to Irish hospitals are collected by apheresis and it is the aim of the IBTS in association with the Irish Cancer Society to recruit about 2,000 new platelet donors in order to supply 100% apheresis platelets within the next two years.

For further information on becoming a platelet donor text ‘Platelet’ to 53377, email ann.o’leary@ibts.ie or telephone 01 432 2833. If you are based in Cork and are interested in finding out more about becoming a platelet donor, contact Sharon O’Keeffe on (021) 480 7430.