The parents of a Rickmansworth girl who sadly passed away last year have written an emotional message to a woman who donated her stem cells to try and save her.
Kaiya Patel, six, who was a student at St Helen’s School in Northwood, tragically passed away in January last year.
She’d had a successful stem cell transplant after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2018, but shortly after the transplant she contracted an adenovirus which ended her life.
Now Kaiya’s parents, Anu and Ruchit, have publicly thanked Joanna Jędrzejewska, who donated her stem cells to their daughter.
On a Facebook page dedicated to Kaiya, they wrote: “Dear Joanna, I know you received our letters just after you donated to our beautiful daughter but I just wanted everyone here to know you. Because what you did was amazing, you gave us hope. What a lot of people don’t know is that you were Kaiya’s third match. The first one said no straight away, the second couldn’t commit to a time but you, you said yes. Even though you hate needles, even though you have a little girl to look after, even though there could have been a million reasons to say no, you put everything aside for our little girl. For that, I’ll be eternally grateful to you.
“I wish you could have met our little girl, I think you would have really liked her. She knew about you. You see even though Kaiya didn’t make it, her transplant was a success. You were a good match for her. She had the right amount of gvhd, she engrafted 100 per cent to you. She had no cancer cells in her body.
I also want to thank the 10 people from drives done in Kaiya’s name who also went on to donate. You gave someone another chance at life. A bone marrow transplant is their last resort, you are their last hope. Surprisingly there were another 20+ matches but they decided not to donate. I beg you, please say yes when the call comes. You may not see the fear in that family’s eyes but I’ve seen it all too often. I saw it Kaiya’s eyes when we told her that we initially had a match only to be told that evening that they said no.”
To read the full letter, go to facebook.com/curekaiya/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARDM57JYrF-I1b3sTKrcsEJ9ryYTpEXsM2iCxjigInjM9N-pC3l9VmBiEi8sZYCk-K6C_0GDwzNRlrfi
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