Kyle needs a donor match...
Strength, determination and competitiveness sums up seventeen year old Kyle Skidmore from Glenwood High School. Kyle was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in April 2010 and is in desperate need of a bone marrow stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor match.
“I was always an anaemic child and bruised easily but it was only in 2006 when I was in Grade 6 that my illness became evident”, explains Kyle.
“I was playing Rugby at St Charles and after being tackled, a bruise formed on my arm. By the end of the game it was the length of my arm. My grandfather said it was abnormal and took me to the GP for some tests. The doctor pricked the end of my finger and I bled for fifteen minutes which indicated that my platelets were low. They didn’t expect them to be as low as 56 000, the normal count being between 150 000 and 200 000, and I was diagnosed with a blood disorder called ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura)”.
At this stage Kyle wasn’t too concerned because he didn’t feel sick but was annoyed that he could not play any contact sport.
“A couple of months after being diagnosed I begged my grandfather to let me play soccer for one of the lower teams so I could feel like a normal kid. He agreed but slowly I climbed up the soccer teams and in Grade 7, I got injured again”.
Kyle had his first bone marrow biopsy in Grade 7 and it was really painful. “So many people think this is how you donate bone marrow stem cells and it is not the case at all. You simply donate additional white blood cells intravenously. It’s similar to donating platelets, just a longer process”.
The results of the biopsy showed that Kyle’s platelets had dropped to 36 000 but he was told he would grow out of the condition.
“Still I wasn’t too worried because I didn’t feel ill. I felt tired and slept every afternoon but I was still performing at sport and school and chose not to think about it. The only thing that did change was that I moved away from contact sport and focussed on Athletics”.
In Grade 8 and 9 I was chosen for the athletics squad. My knees did give me problems which is a symptom of ITP but other than that I still felt absolutely normal.
It was at this time, that my grandparents decided to move to Hillcrest and asked me to look at schools in the Durban and Highway areas which I would be interested in attending. I researched all of them and Glenwood was my first and only choice.
The holiday before I started at Glenwood my nose started to bleed and I couldn’t stop it. My grandparents rushed me to hospital and six hours later, a specialist put a plug up my nose which reached down my throat. He said he needed to send me to ICU because, due to the volume of blood I had lost, I was at risk of going into cardiac arrest.
The specialist asked me if I wanted to talk to my grandparents before I went in and I replied that I didn’t want my Gran to see me like this because I had already put her through so much. My platelet count was down to 4500 as this point.
I started Grade 10 at Glenwood at the beginning of 2010 and played cricket. I was hit in my shin and although it bruised and was very sore I just ignored it. Eventually the swelling got so bad that my skin started blistering. When I showed our House Administration Manager, she insisted I go to Entabeni Hospital where I stayed for five days. My platelet count was down to 20 000.
In April 2010 I was officially diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia and had to go to Albert Luthuli Hospital for regular top ups of platelets and blood. In. April 2011 I was told I needed a bone marrow stem cell transplant from a matching donor. This is when I was hit with the severity of my life threatening blood disorder.
Kyle is unable to find a donor match in South Africa so has to search internationally. This search will cost approximately R250 000 and is not covered by medical aid. Finding a donor match internationally is usually not a feasible option for South Africans.
Kyle would like to thank his grandparents, the staff and pupils at Glenwood High School and everyone who has shown their support and encouragement.
