The Last Mile

It is every impending mother’s dream that their period of pregnancy runs smoothly and they give birth to a perfectly healthy baby. But what if your child is born with a life threatening genetic blood disease. How would you cope with the earth shattering news that your newly born daughter has thalassemia? The majority of parents throughout the world don’t even know thalassemia exists let alone what it is. But for the parents of children born with thalassemia it is a rude awakening to a life of despair and desperation for their child’s future. This book is one mother’s quest to try and save her daughter’s life irrespective of what she has to endure. The initial realisation that her daughter had a genetically inherited disease that she had never heard of gave Aisha the drive and determination to not only research the illness but to also find a cure for her daughter. Her quest for a cure took her from searching the Internet (Google), to paediatricians, doctors, numerous clinics and hospitals to ascertain what this evil thalassemia her daughter inherited was. It was only Aisha’s persistence that allowed the family to pursue a cure for their daughter. Her thirst to find out as much information she could about thalassemia with her research and continually asking questions of the doctors gave her the answers she needed. The outcome of all her endeavours was the realisation that for their daughter to have a successful and healthy life she needed a bone marrow transplant. Finding a suitably Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) matching donor could be a difficult and extremely costly exercise for the family. Throughout these dark days had come a glimmer of hope for Aisha to save her daughter but the option available to her and Arko, her husband, was fraught with fear and trepidation.