You Could Save This Man’s Life.
Or at least, you could if the names LaFrance, Harton, Champetier, or Deidier appear in your family tree.
Some of you may know, or know of, Joël Champetier. He’s an author and editor, very active in Quebec’s SF community. I’ve met the man a few times myself, perhaps most notably during a group-orgy of a book launch back in ’99 during which both us gave birth to novels sired by Tor.
He’s a nice guy. He’s a smart guy. He’s about my age. And a bunch of rogue cells in his bone marrow are trying to kill him.
This is what he needs, straight from his wife, Valérie Bédard:
“We are looking for stem cell donors, age 18 to 35, in good health. Four names are crucial: people with ancestors named LAFRANCE, HARTON (especially the colony east of Quebec, along the saint-Laurence, but the original ancestor is from Germany ) and CHAMPETIER from the south of France, also DEIDIER, south of France, Belgium but may be somewhere else in Europe.
If you have ancestors by those names, please contact Héma-québec or your local blood bank to have your ADN tested. STEM CELL DONATION is PAINLESS and does not require surgery nor hospitalisation.
In the province of Québec, you must be between 18 and 35 years old and in good health. But in some countries, the limit of age is upper. So, if you want to help, even if you are in other countries than Canada, please contact the closest organization for stem cells donation. The data base is international, so…”
Spread the word. Make it happen.
Nice touch with the painless part :-).
Why does it have to be one of these names?
I think they’re using surnames as a first-cut proxy for blood relationships, hence potential compatibility. It’s no guarantee, but it high-grades the candidate pool.
I don’t know if this is a good idea or has the potential for a huge backslash, But 23andme has the option to find and contact genetic relatives. They will probably be a better match than just trying to find people based on last names.
The backlash risk comes from the fact that people may consider the requests as spam, specially if it catches on and it starts to be used often for these types of cases..
I think I’ve been registered with the UBMDR (Unrelated Bone Marrow donor Registry) for about 15 years. If called, I shall answer!
The upper age limit of 35 is ridiculous.