“I instantly recognized the Person who had saved my life.”
As a two-year-old toddler, Rebecca was diagnosed with acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
Six months of rigorous chemotherapy pushed her cancer into remission. But a year later, the cancer resurfaced and hospitalisation with more chemotherapy followed.
Of that time, Rebecca has many memories: Being so weak that she mainly slept; throwing up regularly on her bedclothes; losing her hair for the third time; hearing her parents crying in the next room; and her weekly ‘outing’ when her dad would push her in a wheelchair to look at the hospital’s newborn babies through the window.
The chemotherapy wasn’t enough to fight the cancer off for the second time, and Rebecca’s parents were told that a bone marrow transplant was urgently needed to keep her alive.
Thanks to the support of our financial donors, the SABMR was able to continue searching for a match for Rebecca.
Rebecca’s story inspired hundreds of people in the family’s community to respond and register as donors. And then one was found – right here in South Africa.
Four months after her relapse, Rebecca received her lifesaving bone marrow stem cell transplant which cured her of her Leukaemia.
Now a young adult, Rebecca met her donor, Zyta, at the SABMR’s 21st anniversary celebration. And Rebecca recalls the exact moment she realised that Zyta was her donor.
“At the anniversary function, I walked into that room full of people looking round to guess who my donor was. Zyta smiled at me. I’ll never forget that she had the friendliest face, and I instantly knew that she was the person who saved my life.”
The two have stayed in contact over the years since. And Rebecca wears the butterfly necklace that was a gift from Zyta, never taking it off.
“I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Zyta, and the necklace reminds me of her and what she did for me.”