In these past two weeks, I have had the privilege to experience and witness first-hand what, to me, was the most heart-felt social change in my community.
In December 2010, my friend Jennifer – an amazing young woman – was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She underwent her first round of chemotherapy, but the disease proved too strong, and now her only chance lies with finding a match for a bone marrow transplant. Knowledge of her condition brought shock, fear, and sadness to the hearts of her family, friends, and volleyball team mates. However, what I witnessed was not a patient who dwelled on her misfortune by asking “Why me?” but a family who brought together different communities to form a new one, now connected by the common goal of helping Jenn find a compatible bone marrow donor.
The event might have started because something so terrible is happening to such a young, vibrant, and active woman, but it certainly is not where it ends. What began as a call of help to friends and family escaladed into an entire awareness campaign to encourage the Asian community to join OneMatch.ca. Thinking back to the Malcolm Gladwell speech that critiqued some social change as having too much emphasis on the ‘knowing’, and not enough on the ‘doing’, this is an example that demonstrated successful social change which began with raising awareness, and almost simultaneously translating that into actions to facilitate change. Through mediums such as Facebook, various news broadcasts, word of mouth, and radio broadcasts, the word of Jenn’s story spread through Toronto, accompanied by information of how each person is possibly capable of saving a life by a simple swab test. I attended Jenn’s bone marrow drive two weekends ago, at the Sheraton Hotel, and was amazed when I overheard one man tell the volunteer that he did not know Jenn personally, but simply came to know her story and how he could potentially help many other leukemia patients by coming to swab his cheeks for a DNA sample. There have been subsequent bone marrow drives after that which were very successful, despite the fact that she has yet to find a matching donor.
While it is true that we don’t know how many patients, if any, have benefited from this awareness campaign; but one thing we do know for sure is awareness was increased, and people responded. It might not be visible on a national, even a provincial level, but it sure was a huge movement to me; it was our community raising awareness on a topic that was close to heart, and mobilizing our resources - the choice to donate our bone marrow - to help create a healthier community.
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