By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
When Granby businesswoman and mother of two Penny Lamarre began experiencing debilitating fatigue in May 2018, at age 44, she thought she just needed to catch up on her sleep.
“I was sleeping 20 hours a day…and I thought I was just really tired,” she said. “I had a friend who was a nurse, and she said, ‘You need to go to the clinic.’ I thought I had mono. I went to the clinic in the morning; by 11 a.m., I had my blood test. At 1 p.m., my family doctor called and said they would be transferring me in an ambulance.”
Lamarre was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, a form of cancer which attacks the blood and bone marrow. She was told that without treatment, she could have as little as one week to live. She was given drugs to “reboot” her immune system, a painful process which left her vulnerable to fungal infections that made it hard for her to open her mouth. “In October, they said, ‘We’ll wait to see if the treatment works.’ In July 2019 I had a setback; I started chemo again and then they launched a search to find a bone marrow donor.” In the meantime, she got her affairs in order and thought about who would raise her children – who were nine and eleven at the time – if she wasn’t around anymore. Then she got the call that gave her a new lease on life – a match had been found in Germany. On Dec. 12, 2019, after the donor’s cells were sent by courier across the Atlantic, the transplant took place in Montreal.
Six years out from a bone marrow transplant and a yearlong recovery process, Lamarre said she has “98 per cent” of her life back, after a long process of rebuilding physically, mentally and financially. “I just turned 50, and now I’m working on building my body back up. I used to ride my bike a lot, play dek hockey and dance; I’m just now getting back into it. I spent four years not working – I got two years of disability pension payments, I sold things and had to start a GoFundMe.” The memory of getting turned away from a food pantry she used to contribute to in better times because she had $50 in her bank account set aside to pay a utility bill still stings. “I found that hard…but I had a lot of help from friends who brought me food and things like toilet paper.” She now has a “nice life” with a life-coaching business and a sideline as a travel agent.
The cells which saved her life were donated by a German college student named Johanna, now a physiotherapist. “The recipient can request [their donor’s contact information] two years after the transplant,” Lamarre said. “We had a Zoom call and it was a magic moment … since then, we’ve met a few times. She came to visit last year and I showed her Montreal and Quebec City. She has a baby now and I sent her some baby stuff. It’s a privilege for me to have this person in my life.”
Lamarre is sharing her story as part of a Héma-Québec campaign to encourage young people to donate bone marrow. Héma-Québec spokesperson Josée Larivée said prospective donors can request a kit from the blood bank and submit a cheek swab sample; they will be contacted if they are a match for a patient. Donors must be between the ages of 18 and 35 to submit a sample, although if you are a match for a patient and you are over 35, you may still get a call. Quebec donors may be matched with recipients in Quebec, in the rest of Canada or in Europe.”
“The bank has 55,000 samples from people who have raised their hands and [sent in] a cheek swab,” Larivée explained. “[Héma-Québec is] a member of a worldwide bank with 42 million samples. We are looking for a genetic profile as identical [to the patient] as we can get, and that’s why we need a large diversity of donors; a North African patient needs a North African donor and a Haitian needs a donor from the Black community. In Quebec, there are genetic commonalities in Bas-Saint-Laurent, in the Gaspé, in the Magdalen Islands and in the Beauce, for example, so if you live in one of those regions, you may be helping your neighbours.”
Bone marrow transplants are used to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, certain types of immune deficiency and some other cancers, after other treatment methods have failed or have taken a heavy toll on their immune system. Once a match has been found and a donor has agreed to the procedure, there are usually two options – the donor either undergoes a brief surgical procedure to extract bone marrow from their pelvic bone, or takes a drug over a period of several days that multiplies stem cell production before having blood drawn. Sometimes doctors will request one or the other; sometimes the donor will choose the procedure that they’re most comfortable with. The cells are then injected into the recipient’s vein, and the patient’s body can begin the long, difficult work of rebuilding their immune system – Lamarre was hospitalized for three months and dealt with six months of intense fatigue after her own transplant.
“You kill the patient’s immune system and you inject the donor’s cells…so my body is functioning with your blood,” Larrivée said. After Lamarre received her own bone marrow transplant, her blood type changed, a lifelong reminder of the link between her and Johanna.
Larrivée encourages young adults under 35 to sign up for the stem cell registry. “Once you get their attention, young people are community-minded, but you do need to get their attention and their time,” she said. “Give yourself a challenge to convince one person.”
People who are interested in donating and who meet the age requirement can visit
hemaquebec.ca/en/stem-cells-donation/what-to-expect-when-you-give-stem-cells to learn more about the process and request a cheek-swab sample kit.