CALGARY—Three Edmonton sisters are trying to bring Calgary’s Asian community together for a donor registration drive in the hopes of saving their brother’s life.

Bille Nguyen was in his final year of studying engineering at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology when he found out that what he thought was just a cold was actually subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma — a rare form of cancer.

After unsuccessful rounds of chemotherapy, the 25-year-old was told that a stem cell transplant was his only chance of survival.

“When (the doctor) told me we needed to switch gears and do a stem cell transplant, my ears started ringing. I wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying afterwards. It was a really crappy feeling,” he said.

Bille’s chances of finding a donor match are just as rare as his cancer.

“Any individual can have difficulty finding a matching donor,” said Sarah Jasmines, the Canadian Blood Services’ stem cell territory manager for Western Canada.

“But, in particular, Indigenous Canadians, South Asians, Asians, and African-Canadians face a much steeper hill when trying to find a matching donor.”

She said that in Canada’s database of potential donors, only 32 per cent are from diverse ancestry like Bille, who is of Vietnamese-Chinese descent.

“Stem cell transplant is a last resort,” said Bille. “It really sucks to know that I’m just waiting to find a match and if I don’t find it, that I’m not going to be OK. I will die if I don’t find a match.”

Bille’s sisters will find out next week if they are a match, said Shelly Nguyen. She said they each have a 25 per cent chance.

“If there is no match, we didn’t want to take a chance in the donor pool,” said Nguyen. “We found out that only 16 per cent of the donor pool is of Asian ethnicity. Within that 16 per cent, only seven per cent is our ethnicity — which is Vietnamese-Chinese.”

Nguyen and her sisters started the campaign Match4bille to help find their brother a match, but also to raise awareness in ethnic communities to register as stem cell donors.

They have hosted two events in Edmonton to register donors, hoping to find a match. On May 6, more than 650 people showed up to get their cheeks swabbed.

“It was amazing. It brought me to tears,” said Nguyen. “We almost ran out of swabs, actually. The Canadian Blood Services gave us 500 and the youth group that helped us ran and grabbed us 200 more.”

The sisters are planning their Calgary event for June 3 at the Calgary Vietnamese Canadian Association from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Anyone between the ages of 17 and 35 are welcome to come down — although they are hoping to see a large turnout from ethnic minorities.

It’s an easy process, said Jasmines.

“You just fill out a form and do a cheek swab for us and then after that, you just sit and wait ... Most (registered donors) never get a call, it’s kind of like winning the lottery,” said Jasmines.

“But you could be the one match in the entire world for a patient, so you’re the one person who could save them.”

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Bille said he’s been overwhelmed by the support he’s received.

“I get emails, texts, and stories from these complete strangers saying, ‘Stay strong’ and ‘Keep going.’ It’s really heartwarming.”

For more information on the event or Bille, visit the website match4bille.com

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