NZ Blood Pin Ups

 Final Editorial for Blood Donor Article.....

When Joseph Heke (Ngapuhi/Ngati Hineuru) started dating his girlfriend Melissa (Ngati Maniapoto) in 2007, it not only led him on a path towards becoming a husband and father, but also put him on a path to saving lives.

Melissa convinced him to become a blood donor early on in their relationship as she had been a regular donor since giving at high school. She had seen the process at a young age whilst going with her Mum to regularly donate blood and knew that when she was old enough she would like to save lives in this way as well. After becoming a blood donor Joseph was approached by the nurses during one of his donations and signed up to join the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry (NZBMDR) after learning that Māori donors were sought after for the Registry (to find out why see page 11).

In January 2013 Joseph was at work when he was contacted by NZBMDR. A patient overseas was in need of a bone marrow transplant and his records indicated that he could be a possible match.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be a match for somebody but they asked me to come in so they could get a couple of tubes of blood to test. Then a few days later I got a phone call saying I was a suitable match for the patient and was asked if I would donate my bone marrow.“
Joseph felt no hesitation to agree and Melissa said she had no doubts that if it was needed that he should give, as she was also on the Registry and understood the importance of it. 
Joseph was put on a course of a medication called G-CSF to increase the number of stem cells circulating in the blood stream. He was so determined to make sure he was fit and healthy before he donated his bone marrow that he even lost four kilograms by exercising and eating well before his donation date!

On 18 February 2013, Joseph donated his bone marrow at the Epsom Donor Centre through a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donation, a similar process to apheresis donations where blood is taken and spun down in a centrifuge, the components needed (stem cells) removed and the rest returned to the donor.

The whole donation took approximately four hours and Joseph had his support crew, in the form of his three children and wife Melissa, join him for the last 40 minutes.   He returned to work two days later with only minimal bruising from where the needle was. 

Joseph and his wife Melissa firmly believe “if you can donate, give”, and between them have now saved over 100 lives in New Zealand, along with one person overseas with their generous donations.
The couple have three children who will one day hopefully follow in their parent’s footsteps and become blood donors as well as join the NZBMDR. 

NZBMDR still requires donors who have Māori, Pacific Island or any other ethnic minority to join the Registry. For more information go to www.bonemarrow.org.nz or see page 11.


(It's pretty darn hard/impossible to get a photo of us all looking at the camera, so let's just say we got some family pics of us as at June 2013. Some grumpy, some shy, some eating toys, some scratching noses, but the Joseph/Mel family nonetheless.)

 

 

Stem Cell Transplant

About 2 or 3 months ago Daddy Joe got a call to say he was a bone marrow match for someone and would he be willing to donate. We didn't really know what it involved but after hearing how it could save someones life with little or no impact on Daddy Joe we decided for him to go ahead with it. Apparently the recipient is of polynesian decent and living in France.

So he had quite a lot of appointments to get ready for it. Lots of blood tests and an exray. 

Eventually it seemed that everything was ready to go ahead. He'd inject himself morning and night for 4 days before the procedure (to boost his stem cells). We had to travel with our little medicine box full of ice and cold gel bags, which was a little tricky, but worked out fine.

I hope everything goes well for the man who needed the transplant!!!!

On the day he was hooked up to the machines for about 5 hours and we caught the last 1/2 hour to take some pics.

This arrived by courier one afternoon and had to go straight into the fridge (full of injections for 4 days)

I offered to help with this when I saw him doing the first one but I was secretly hoping he'd do it himself (and he did thank goodness)

Set up for 5 hours like this. They gave him a portable DVD player and brought him snacks so he was sweet

Making themselves at home in the cafe area. The grumpy volunteer lady was not impressed at all how they were opening the container and taking out bikkies.

His little Filipino nurse was too cute. He gets lots of chances to use his tagalog, and it always seems to be in hospital type places. I always feel like I'm in good hands when I'm with a Pinoy cause they're so kind and gentle and well qualified (Aunty Beezy some of the phlebotomists were Drs in the Philippines!!!)

Faith thinks this pic of Seffy's eyes is hilarious. She loves to mimic it.

Our neighbours brought over a crayfish and kina last sunday night. Scary!

Jess gave us some favourites chocolates for christmas and they said 'to the world's best neighbours from the world's second best neighbours. My goodness she totally got it around the wrong way. They are so amazing. Whenever they go fishing they bring some over. And we're getting our paint and DIY supplies at about 1/2 the price they would otherwise cost cause Matt works at Carters. What a blessing. Their generosity is amazing. I wonder if Matt's regretting telling us that cause I swear every second day it seems Daddy Joe's gone in to get something new from him!