Give a Little, it will mean a LOT

My brother, Herman Smith is a very active guy in his early 40’s. He is an incredible dad to 3 beautiful young children and a solid loving husband to his wife. Until recently he was a healthy, fit and active person that had no health concerns at all.

Recently he was diagnosed with AMT (Acquired Megakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia) this causes excessive bleeding and bruising. The large marrow sites in his bone marrow are not producing blood platelets at the rate they would normally. Because this is such a rare condition he is currently waiting for medical aid to approve the treatments as it is not a standard case.

His main risk right now is inter-cranial brain haemorrhage, so he is unable to do his usual activities, not a great thing for a highly active person like my brother.

To keep him going he is getting a weekly blood platelet transfusions, he's had 5 so far. Initially the uptake of the donor blood platelets into his system was fairly good, around a level of 61. But as of the last 2 transfusions it has only risen to the low 30’s.

There is also the risk of continued blood transfusions, the more you get the higher the risk of my immune system developing immunity against donor material and if we do get to the point of a bone marrow transplant, there is a lower chance of his body accepting the donor marrow/stem-cells materials.

We are trying to get the to the first step of treatment ASAP, which is a type of non-destructive chemo, immunotherapy treatment. Unfortunately this condition is very rare, therefore the treatment is uncommon in South Africa and our medical aid is unsure of cover for this treatment regime. This is prolonging the approval of this treatment.

Once this treatment has been pursued for 2-3 months, the doctors will be able to assess the success of the treatment, hopefully Im producing more platelets. If not then a bone marrow transplant is the next route of treatment. We are praying that I could be a match for my brother. There is about a 1 in 4 chance of stem-cell compatibility within your family. If I am not compatible we will start looking for donors in the EU registries. But these expenses are extremely high.

I ask to stand by me, and help my brother and his little family to fund these very expensive procedures. This will go a looooong way thanks to the South African Rand being so weak. Let's save this life! Pay it forward. I know Herman will.