Saturday swab drive hopes to discover donor

Lou Tersigni, pictured with his wife Sandra, requires a bone marrow transplant. Real estate giant Tridel Group of Companies, for which he worked for 13 years, is holding a swab drive Saturday in Toronto in hopes of discovering a donor.

By TRISTAN CARTER

Every 38 minutes someone in Canada is diagnosed with blood cancer. In January, Lou Tersigni found out he was one of them.

Three days later, the Vaughan man was admitted to Sunnybrook Hospital to begin treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. The brother, husband and father is currently undergoing his third round of chemotherapy, but will also require a bone marrow transplant. Neither his wife Sandra nor his sister Monica is a match.

Tridel Group of Companies, where Tersigni has worked for 13 years as a project manager, has been trying to help, according to company spokesperson Peter Meneguzzi. The real estate company has been actively educating staff about the disease and looking for donor matches for Tersigni and others.

“Lou said, ‘It’s not only for myself but for families like mine that are looking for matches,’” Meneguzzi said in a phone interview. “It’s a pretty noble thing to say when you’re fighting for your life.”

Tridel is holding a swab drive, to be held 8–11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, in hopes of finding a suitable donor. The event will be held during the Walk for Life at the Ontario Science Centre on Don Mills Road in Toronto.

“We’re running a swab drive where people can come and find out whether or not they’re able to donate,” Meneguzzi said. “They can come in and get tested at the event.”

Tersigni, who will turn 40 this month, first realized something was wrong when he started to feel tired easily.

“Doing the simplest things, such as coming up a flight of stairs, was becoming difficult for him and he’s a very active person,” Meneguzzi said. “He’s into bicycling quite heavily, and outdoor activities in general.”

Leukemia affects the body’s blood cells and platelets, hindering the transportation of oxygen. Bone marrow transplants can be used to normalize the production of blood cells in the body, and thus cure the disease.

The odds of finding the correct bone marrow match are 1 in 20,000. Matching donors are most often of the same ethnic background as the patient. Although he was born in Canada, Tersigni’s parents immigrated here from Pescosolido Frosinone, Italy.

The cotton swab test can also be ordered from the site onematch.ca.

OneMatch is group associated with Canadian Blood Services and is responsible for finding and matching stem cell and marrow donors with patients. The registry is part of a global network comprised of more than 50 similar organizations boasting a total of more than 11 million prospective donors.