Donor match made for N.S. mother needing stem cell transplant in cancer fight

HALIFAX -

Danielle Biron is undergoing high-dose chemotherapy to prepare her body for a long-awaited stem cell transplant, which will take place Friday.

It’s a procedure she’s been anxiously waiting for since she was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer last fall, after beating thyroid cancer in 2020.

“(There’s a) 40 to 60 per cent chance it actually works, and cures me,” says Biron in an interview with CTV at the Halifax hospital where she will be spending more than a month.

CTV News first met the 36-year-old April 4, after the wife and mother’s first stem cell match to treat her bone marrow cancer had fallen through.

Biron’s friends immediately began organizing swabbing drives and spreading awareness about the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry, in hopes of finding another.

Biron says it was soon after her CTV interview that she got the call -  a compatible donor had been found.

“It all happened really fast, actually,” she says.

Donor anonymity means Biron doesn't know who or where her donor is, or even when the swab was taken.

Bone marrow cancer patient Danielle Biron will undergo a stem cell transplant Friday after another donor match has been found. (Heidi Petracek/CTV News)What she does know, is that the news gave her new hope.

“I want to feel normal, go for hikes,” she says, “I want to feel like a normal person, and not have to huff and puff to put my laundry in.”

The hair stylist has been unable to work since her symptoms began.

Biron's stem cell transplant procedure will be much like a blood transfusion.

First, the donor’s blood is removed from a catheter inserted into a large vein in the arm, cycled through a machine to separate the cells from the blood.

Those cells are then infused into her blood stream through a central venous catheter over several hours.

Biron will be in hospital for six weeks to ensure the transplanted cells “take” to their new host, and begin to multiply to make new blood cells.

“They told me there is a 15 per cent chance that people don’t make it through this process, so 75 per cent chance I will,” she said with a laugh.

Biron with friend Lyndsay Casey in the Halifax hospital where Biron will spend the next 6 weeks. (Heidi Petracek/ CTV News)Even while she has been undergoing her own transplant journey, Biron continues to raise awareness about how important it is for people between 17 and 35 years old to register as stem cell donors.

“On top of all this, her own journey, she's promoting so much,” says friend Lyndsay Casey, “I'm learning so much, people in our lives and in our bigger circle (are) just learning all about the importance of testing.”

Last week, Biron wrote a Facebook post about another Nova Scotian waiting for a stem cell match, a boy in Brookside, N.S. who has juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia.

“This is Colton. He is four years old,” she wrote, “Since this worked so well for me! (sic) Let’s do it for Colton.”

Her post includes a link to information on how to receive a swab kit from Canadian Blood Services by mail.

Four-year-old Colton Burns of Brookfield, N.S is also waiting for a stem cell donor match as he battles a rare type of leukemia. (Source: Facebook)She and Casey say their mission to educate and encourage potential stem cell donors will continue long after Biron’s transplant is complete.

“I think just that alone is huge,” says Casey. “The amount of people that have been testing, the love, I’m just in awe of her.”

“I've had a lot of support and love,” says Biron, shedding tears. “People don’t realize how much it can change someone’s life.”