A woman who two years ago donated bone marrow to save her brother from leukaemia has been struck down with the same disease.

To survive, Wang Xuexia, 22, now needs cells from the brother she donated bone marrow to.

In 2003, Xuexia gave 1,600 millilitres of stem cell blood from her bone marrow to her 29-year-old brother, Wang Xuelei. Eighteen months later, Xuelei has recovered, and it is his sister who is in desperate need of treatment.

"To save Xuexia's life, her brother must donate his stem cells because we haven't found another match anywhere on the Chinese mainland or in Taiwan," Chen Hu, director of the Transplant Department of the No 307 Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, said yesterday.

However, the sister is reluctant.

"My brother is still in the rehabilitation period," said Xuexia, who comes from a small village in Linquan County, East China's Anhui Province.

"I'm afraid the transplant could damage his health," said a pale Xuexia, lying in the same hospital ward where her brother was treated.

Doctors insist the disease is not connected to the stem cell transplant to her brother.

The other obstacle to the transplant is that her family cannot afford the expensive medical bills.

The cost of the transplant alone is between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan (US$18,500 to US$24,700). Xuelei's treatment cost nearly 600,000 yuan (US$74,000) and bankrupted the family, said the siblings' father, 51-year-old Wang Tongli.

"My debts total 200,000 yuan (US$24,700). Nobody will lend me money. My children's medical costs are like a bottomless pit.

"But if there is a glimmer of hope, we will not give up," said the father, who lives in a small rented room near the hospital with his wife Gu Herong.

Gu said she and her husband collect discarded plastic beverage bottles daily and sell them to recycling centres to make some money.

Gu said she has three sons and two daughters "but only Xuexia and Xuelei's stem cells match."

Xuexia, whose hair dropped out following seven sessions of chemotherapy, said her brother -- now living in their hometown with his wife and two children -- sends her short messages every day and asks about her condition. "My brother told me that he would give me his stem cells no matter how risky the operation would be. But I really would not lay such a heavy burden on him and my parents," said Xuexia, tears welling in her eyes.

According to Chen, Xuexia will only live for another three to six months if she does not receive a transplant in time.

Soldier's plight raises profile of marrow banks

A dying leukaemia patient's desperate search for matching bone marrow has highlighted the plight of the country's bone marrow banks' urgent need for money to cover the costs of testing blood samples.

For Wei Nan, a soldier in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the hope of survival becomes increasingly slim with each passing day.

The 20-year-old was diagnosed with acute leukaemia on July 11 and needs an urgent marrow transplant.

Her mother, Wang Yan, has appealed to big bone marrow banks in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province and even Japan, for help.

However the results were disappointing as none of the marrow samples supplied by the banks matched her son's.

A local newspaper in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, called for local residents to donate stem cells for him.

Many volunteers called to show their willingness to help.

However, it was only when people's attention was turned to the provincial bone marrow bank did they discover the difficult situation it is now facing.

"We can take more blood samples from donors, but we don't have enough money to test them," Luan Shuqin, director of the bone marrow bank, said.

According to her, each blood sample should go through a Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) test before its information can be stored in Zhonghua Marrow Bank.

"But the HLA tests cost 530 yuan (US$65) each," she said.

According to Luan, The bank has collected 11,000 blood samples from volunteers but only 7,000 samples' information was recorded due to lack of funds.

Forty-six samples have been preliminarily found to match that of current leukaemia patients, and four people have already been saved, according to her.

"The lack of funds may result in the loss of information about donors," she said.

The plight the bank is facing is not unique.

Zhonghua Marrow Bank, also known as Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donor Databank, has 30 branches throughout the country.

"Lack of cash for testing is the problem all its branches are facing," Luan said.

Each year, the government puts a certain quota on donors and gives a corresponding amount of money for the branches to register donors.

"However, the money is only enough to cover the quota," she said,

The quota for Heilongjiang Bone Marrow Bank is 3,000 donors this year, and Luan said that they have already fulfilled that quota.

"If we want to expand the bank, we need to find the money to cover the testing costs ourselves," she said.

However, the province's high incidence of leukaemia calls for a much larger bone marrow bank.

"At present, Heilongjiang Province already has the highest incidence of leukaemia, with about 1,000 children suffering from this fearful disease," said Ma Jun, director of Heilongjiang Blood Research Centre.

The incidence of leukaemia is seven in every 100,000 people in Heilongjiang, while the national average is about five in every 100,000.

According to Ma, the province, with a population of 38 million, needs a marrow bank that contains the information about at least 100,000 potential donors.

The matching success rate of bone marrow is just one in 10,000 for relatives and one in 100,000 among non-relatives.

"We do need more volunteers, but we also need the funds to do sample analysis and expand the capacity of the marrow station," Luan said.

In contrast, exclusive funds are allocated to cover the analysis costs and 30 per cent of the volunteers in Shanghai are willing to pay for the analysis fee out of their own pockets, she said.

(China Daily August 9, 2005)