Petrolene De Beer
Donations for Petrolene De Beer
Petrolene (47 years) also known by many of her friends as Pietie, was diagnosed on 1 June 2010 with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). She was very seriously ill when she was admitted to the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in Constantiaberg and they started with chemo treatment immediately. Her only option was to have a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible and as none of her siblings were a match and her medical aid does not pay for the expenses of a non-related donor her only option left was for her own stem cells to be harvested and transplanted back again. Although this was not the ideal option, it was the only one available as there were no time to raise the necessary funds for a non-related donor search. She underwent 3 months of intense chemo treatment of which she had spent the whole month of June 2010 in hospital, and in November 2010 they did her own bone marrow transplant.
She regained her strengths and was in remission and went back to work on 1 March 2011. Monthly tests were performed since the transplant and on 19 June 2011 a small amount of cancer cells were picked up in her blood tests again. This was monitored and Petrolene was told that if the cancer relapses the only option to save her life would be to have a non-related bone marrow transplant. In June 2011 the amount of cancer cells had doubled and on 25 July, after feeling week and feverish, Petrolene went back to her doctor where further bone marrow biopsy tests revealed that the cancer cells have increased substantially and that the cancer has definitely relapsed.
As the medical aid will not cover any of the donor costs it means that Petrolene and her family must raise approximately R500 000.00 to cover the donor costs which in all likelihood will be sourced from the overseas bone marrow register as South Africa only have 64 000 members on their register and your chance to find a match is 1 out of a 100 000.
Petrolene is back in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Constantiaberg and has received her first session of chemo already and although she had very high fevers the first two weeks, she is recovering well at the moment. Her doctor has already contacted the National and International Bone Marrow Donor Registry as this initial request is free and a couple of potential donors have already been identified, but before any further testing can be done, Petrolene and her husband has to put R80 000.00 down for the next level of testing. All interaction with the Bone Marrow Register has to be prepaid before anything will be done.
Petrolene has been married to Andries for nearly 25 years and they have 2 beautiful daughters, Leandri (20 yrs) and Marzahn (15 yrs). As you can imagine, they are going through a terrible time as they don’t want to loose their wife and mother and are scarred that we will not be able to raise the necessary funds.
Petrolene was a top sportswoman, represented her province on the sports field and is now a mother encouraging her youngest daughter, Marzahn (15 years) who excels in tennis and netball. Marzahn attends Swartland High School in Malmesbury and is in grade 9.
Leandri is a 2nd year student at Stellenbosch University where she is studying BSc Human Life Science with Anatomy as her major. Andries and Petrolene are also fully funding all her University costs which puts another burden on them financially.
Petrolene lost her sister to cancer 6 years ago and also use to take care of her elderly parents, but her father passed away in April this year and now only her mother still lives with her and her family.
As Constantiaberg Hospital is approximately 100 km away from Malmesbury, the travelling to the hospital and back also just adds to their financial burden.
It would be appreciated if your company can pledge an amount towards the fund to help us raise the required funds needed for the transplant.
