Stephen Beckta of Westboro’s Gezellig, will be hosting a “swab-a-thon” at the restaurant between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on March 29.
“We are trying to find a stem cell match for our friend Al Carpenter who is suffering from Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)… while growing the bank of potential donors in Canada,” writes Beckta in a recent email exchange.
As a Caucasian male, Carpenter would have had a 93% chance of finding a match from the 22 million strong network, but Beckta explains that Carpenter “is a bit of an anomaly” because of his ALL.
“I never understood until now the immense need and what little it takes to save someone’s life in this way, and I think like me, most people are not well informed,” he writes.
More information about stem cell donation can be found online at blood.ca. Event info has been set up on Facebook.