South Africans come together v

South Africans come together via Facebook to find a blood donation for a 4-year old boy

Hayley-Ann Rodgers saw the miracle of social activism last week after her very close friends put a plea on Facebook for their little boy, who is currently in the Unitas Pediatric Oncology ward.

South Africans come together v

Declan, who is only 4 years old, suffers from a rare childhood leukemia, JMML.

His 5-year old sister was a match for a bone marrow transplant which was very successful, however on Monday, Hayley received a message from Stacey, his mom, saying that there were no B+ blood platelets available which he desperately needed.

“We took to Facebook and asked anyone who had B+ blood if they could possibly go and get tested and would be willing to donate. We offered to pay for any cost incurred.”

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle!

By 14h00 the SANBS Benoni contacted Stacey, Declan’s mom and asked that we stop asking for blood!

“They had tested over 70 people from when they had opened! And that was just Benoni!”

The SANBS in Durban also phoned the hospital and said that they had tested 200 people and they were ready and waiting to start getting donations!

All in all there have been over 1000 people that had got tested and that are ready to donate!

“We have had offers of monetary donations from people who couldn’t donate, gifts for Declan and thousands of messages and prayers.”

All participants who got tested did not ask for a single cent in return… they all did it to help Declan.

“One lady even sent Über to someone to take them to be tested!”

With all the extra donations they were able to assist another child in the ward who needed the same platelets.

“This tragedy of a sick little boy has restored our faith in humanity! Complete strangers have become cyber friends overnight! I don’t think I have ever experienced such random acts of kindness on such a level!”

Hayley, Stacey and the rest of the family and friends cannot explain the gratitude and total amazement that has been bestowed on them.

For more info on Declan & his story, click here.