Ellie White, the 6-year-old Hampstead girl whose quest for a bone marrow donor prompted hundreds of people to undergo swab tests, got some great news to begin the new year — she has been cleared by doctors to undergo a life-saving bone marrow transplant in two weeks.
The girl has been fighting leukemia, and last month, against all odds, her family discovered that there was a matching bone marrow donor out there.
Hema-Quebec said at the time that finding a bone marrow match was like finding a needle in a haystack — more than 15 million different combinations needed to match up before a transplant can take place.
Her family said she also needed to get tested to make sure there were no remaining cancer cells left in her body — otherwise, she'd have to undergo more chemotherapy. That test, however, came out clean, paving the way for the potentially life-saving operation.
In a couple of weeks, the anonymous donor will have their bone marrow extracted, and within 48 hours, Ellie will go in for the operation.
Ellie's story resulted in a massive social media campaign — which used the hashtag #SwabForEllie and got backing from the likes of former Hab P.K. Subban — which led to hundreds getting swab tests to see if they could be a possible match for her, or someone else, in need.
-With files from CTV Montreal